A Thing for Redheads
by starry-oblivion
Summary: Marvelverse crossover While protecting his beloved NYC, Spider-Man comes across four strange sewer-dwelling creatures with a problem. Unfortunately for the Amazing Wallcrawler, it becomes HIS problem soon enough.
1. Chapter 1

You know, sometimes I wish my life were normal.

…what am I saying? Of course I don't.

Sure, things get complicated. There are secrets and there are identity issues, and there are secret identities. Always have to be careful when you've got one of those. I always kinda wished that there was a way that I could do what I do and not have to hide who I actually am. There's a great sense of freedom in being the man behind the mask, but it doesn't take long before a mask becomes suffocating.

Still, it's hard to feel that way when you're standing on top of a high-rise in the middle of Manhattan, looking down at a miniature world that depends on you for safety. It's looking over the bustling lights and dark alleyways that gives me a sense of pride. Heck, I'll admit it: sometimes it makes me downright cocky. But hey, a superhero's got to have his fair share of guilty pleasures, huh?

No time to think about that right now, though. I happen to catch sight of a group of punks snatching a purse out of the classic Little Old Lady's hands. Funny… usually my spider-senses start tingling at around this point. Like I said before though, no time to think.

I dive off the edge of the building, using my webbing to pull me towards the escaping perps. They duck into an alley, which is also pretty standard. They're probably aiming on scaling a wall or ducking into the sewers. Not if I can get there in time.

I land on my feet just outside the mouth of the alley. I'm about to offer one of my famous witticisms, but I stop when I hear a rather comic-like menagerie of "bang," "pow," and "ka-baam." It's pretty dark in there, so I can only assume that maybe the baddies got into a scuffle over how to divide their loot. That changes, though, when someone throws something at my feet. It's the lady's purse.

"What the-?" The lady's running up nearby, so I grab her purse and toss it to her. "There ya go," I tell her as she catches it. "Compliments of… your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, I guess." I lunge into the alley, making like I'm pulling a disappearing act. The fact of the matter is, there was no way I was leaving this uninvestigated.

I could see two of the punks lying only semi-conscious by a group of garbage cans. Had there only been two of them? I can't remember. I suddenly hear a weird metal-on-metal sound coming from behind me. I spin around just in time to see a manhole cover sliding into place. So, there _are _more. Why they'd throw away the goods is beyond me, but I can't waste time with those questions now.

I use my webs to bind the original two baddies, not wanting the cops to show up without a fun investigation to look forward to. Making my way over to the sewer, I lift the cover up and stick my head in. I can just make out two shadows turning a corner in the gloom. "Hey, wait up fellas," I call after them as I drop in. "What's the matter; bad case of arachnophobia?"

We've been having damp weather lately, so I had to be careful of the pipes. My webbing and wall-crawling would have to be limited, but I didn't think anything of it as I raced after them. After all, these are just a couple of small-time purse-snatchers, right? Why would I have to worry-?

Whoa. Check out the Bermuda Triangle action. I turn the corner that I just saw them run towards, and they're gone. They were only about five seconds ahead of me. There are no secondary tunnels or anything. Just one long, long passageway that probably led uptown. So… where'd they go?

"Nice trick, boys," I say to the dark emptiness. "But I've pulled it myself enough times to know when it's used on me." Mostly bluffing, but partially working on instinct, I shoot out a series of webs towards the practically invisible pipes up above and the shadows all around me. I smile as I hear one of them connect to someone above who cries out as he plunges to the ground. "Can't trick a trickster."

I can't help but gawk at the thing that was hit by a web shot. It gets up on one knee and rubs what I assume to be its chest, and even in the small circle of muted light it landed in, I realize that I'm not dealing with another human here. Heck, this isn't even a demented bad guy, unless it's a _really_ demented baddie who wears bulky costumes during his expeditions. Which, y'know, wouldn't be a first.

"Let me guess," I tell it as it looks up at me resentfully. Squinting at him in the darkness, I try to distinguish his appearance. "Greenish skin, dark elbow- and kneepads, and… it looks like an orange eye mask. One of those back-to-nature survivalists, I'm thinking. Am I right?"

Before I could get an answer, his partner jumps down besides him in an agile motion. I notice that this creature bears a resemblance to the first one, only his eye mask appears red instead of orange. _Probably some symbol of ranking or something_, I think absently. "Hardly right, chump," growls the standing creature. "And if ya care about _your_ survival at all, you'd back the heck away right now. Otherwise, I'll make sure ya get deep into nature yourself. About _six feet_ deep, if ya catch my drift."

Heady little twerp, I'll give him that much. Looking down, I realize he's got a weapon in each of his hands. Mini-tridents. No, I know someone who uses the very same tools. Only, she's an assassin. "Sai? You're carrying a pair of sai? What do you think, that you're some kinda ninja or something?" He's obviously not taking my jibes too well, which is what I was hoping for. The more riled up he gets, the more likely he is to concentrate on offense rather than defense. At least, that's the plan.

It suddenly hits me that the pair of them look vaguely reptilian, and I can't help but wonder if Doc Connor has something to do with this. I know that the experiment that turned him into the Lizard did a number on his sanity, so he may not be above creating little lizard minions for himself if he had a relapse. "So," I continue, ready to leap out of the way the minute either one of them made a move, "if you're a ninja, you gotta have a sensei, right? "

_That_ got him going. With a yell, the thing came running at me. I jumped onto the adjacent wall, but my spider senses went off. Ducking and rolling to the floor, I hear something clanging against the wall I had just abandoned. Peering back, I see that I just missed having a nunchuck thrown at my head. Holy crap, these guys really _are_ ninjas!

The glance back took only a fraction of a second, and that's all it took for the creature that had thrown the nunchuck at me to grab my arms and push me against the wall. He's no Rhino, but he's definitely up there. "What do ya know?"

I blink up at him, confused. "I know that the newest version of Microsoft Windows is pretty much a disaster wrapped up in a shiny package, and that _Calvin and Hobbes_ is one of the only comic strips that actually quit while it was ahead. Can you be more specific, though?"

A snarl sounds right by my ear, and I turn my head just in time to see a sai sink a lot further into a brick wall than I thought was possible. "Sensei, bug boy," mutters the guy with the red. "What do ya know about _Sensei_? And think real good about your answer this time."

_Sensei_? I was just trying to see if I could connect Doc Connors with all of this. But looking at the two stern and almost _desperate_ faces in front of me, I think I might've gotten myself mixed up in something big. Darn, I _hate_ it when that happens.

"Sensei's a teacher, right?" I ask. "Well, I knew a man who was a teacher. Really nice guy, too. And then he got just a little too ambitious and used an untested serum on himself. Turns out the serum turned him a bit green with an extra dose of the occasional crazy. Sound familiar to you guys or what?"

I watch as their faces got more and more confused as I tell my story. When they glance at each other, I figure that we're probably talking about two different things. "Ho-kay," I breathe, "I'll take that as an 'or what.'"

The grip on my arms slackens some, but the thing with the sai presses his hand against my chest, keeping me in place. Apparently, his friend was willing to believe in a misunderstanding, but there was no way Sai Guy was going to let me off so easily. "I'm gonna give ya the benefit 'a the doubt," he says. "Maybe ya don't know what we're talkin' about, or maybe you're just good at babblin'. So I'm gonna get a bit more detailed. _Splinter_. Big rat, of the gray-haired persuasion. Answers to Splinter, Sensei, and Father. Missing for two days. What do ya know?"

Hm. A bit different from my understanding of things. "You guys call a rat 'Father?'" I ask. Sometimes my mouth doesn't know when to quit. "Boy, family get-togethers must be tough. In-laws and distant relatives are bad enough, but when they're not even the same _species_-"

"Is it the spandex that makes ya so funny," Sai Guy interrupts, "or were ya just born with it?" I smile beneath the mask and am about to make a reference to the old Maybelline commercials, but another voice comes out of the darkness.

"Raph, what the heck are you doing?" Sai Guy turns back to look at the newcomer, who had come bearing a flashlight. He shines the bright light on me as Sai Guy—whose name is apparently "Raph"—claims that I knew something about this Splinter character. "I wouldn't doubt it," answers the new guy who I can't see because of the glare of the flashlight. "People like him always seem to know this kinda thing."

Raph asks what he means, but it looks like his orange-clad friend finally managed to get a good look at me. "Eep!" The girlish squeal elicits an uncertain laugh from me. Backing away, the creature says, "Raph, look! Lookit! His chest… the colors, the symbols! Holy shell, we were just interrogating Spider-Man!"

Raph glances back at me, and can see that his friend is right. Begrudgingly letting go of me, he takes a step back. I wave at him. "Hiya, boys. How's it hanging?"

"I have to admit," says the guy with the flashlight, "it's not unusual to spot a spider in the sewers, but I'm surprised to see you here. Trouble topside?"

Deciding that this whole thing was one of those weird cases where two people mistake the other for the bad guy when they're really just working towards different kinds of good, I respond, "Just a small-time robbery. I was wondering why I didn't sense any danger, but I think I know now. These two took care of it." Looking at the two creatures that were embarrassedly looking down, I tell them, "Thanks. And uh, sorry about going a little web-happy earlier."

"Shucks," states the one I had hit. "I actually got mistaken for a bad guy. That's kinda cool, when you think about it." I look him over for a moment. Thinking that he was reptilian wasn't too far off. A turtle. A giant turtle. And he's not the only such creature down here. Somehow, I don't think anyone would go through the trouble to mutate a turtle for the purpose of evil. Unless, y'know, the guy really liked turtles.

"I'm Donatello," says the one holding the flashlight. He lowers it a little, and I can see that he looks just like the other two, only with a purple mask. He also seems to have some kind of staff strapped to his back. It might have something to do with the flashlight, but I'm willing to bet that he's one of the more reasonable guys in the bunch. "That's Raphael, and that's Michelangelo."

"You can call me Mikey," Michelangelo pipes up with a smile as he grabs his thrown weapon.

"Right," I nod. "I'm sensing a theme here. Anyway, the name's Spider-Man, or Spidey, or the Amazing Wallcrawler, or That Blasted Vigilante Menace, depending on your sources. Somehow, though, I think at least two of you knew that."

"Hey, it's dark," Raphael complains. "All I know is that somebody hit my bro, and I wasn't gonna let somethin' happen to nobody else in the family. Okay? Jeez, ya come down here thinkin' you're some kinda celebrity, so-"

"Whoa, hey," I break in, raising my arms in defense. "Calm down a bit, okay? Mistaken identity on both parts, problem solved. I would've done the same thing in your situation, so you don't have to-"

"Take it easy, Spider-Man," Donatello tells me wearily. "He's always like that. Even more so since Splinter disappeared." Peering up at me hopefully, he inquired, "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

I shake my head. "Sorry. I would remember hearing anything about a big, gray, ninja rat, and that hasn't shown up on the radars lately."

"Whoa," Michelangelo gasps, "you have _radars_?"

"Mikey," Donatello mentions, "_we've_ got radars, too."

"Yeah," Michelangelo answers, "but he's _Spider-Man_. He gets like, press coverage 'n stuff. That automatically makes him cooler." Looking at me with something akin to fan worship in his eyes, he asks, "Do you get paid for all your cool gadgets, or is your secret identity like some uber-rich tycoon, like the Winged Terror?"

"Heh," I mutter, not having the heart to tell him that the radar bit was just a figure of speech. "I've got a rich friend. Sounds like a cop-out, I know, but before this I was just subject to whatever I could scrape together from the junkyard. What a mess _that _was."

The three turtles look at me with a wry expression. I suddenly wonder where _they_ get their equipment from, and realize that I already managed to stick my foot in my mouth. I must be the only guy who knows his face's shoe size. "You know," Raphael says dryly, "you sure ain't winnin' any brownie points with us, Spidey."

"So I've noticed," I reply. "At any rate, you look like a group of good guys, so I'm guessing this Splinter is one of the good guys too. I'll keep my ear to the ground and see if I can't find anything out. Is there anything else I should know about this?"

The three of them glance at one another before Donatello mentions, "Actually, yeah. There's a human in danger, too. One of our friends, April O'Neil. Her boyfriend Casey and our brother Leonardo are doing a topside sweep for both of them. Casey called the cops, but we're not pinning too many hopes on them."

"Besides," Raphael brings up, "if the cops _do_ find 'em, we don't wanna have to explain a big, sentient rat being tied into all this. Anyone who'd take Splinter might just know more about us than we'd want the public to know."

"Right," Michelangelo throws in. "Stick to the shadows, and all that junk." When his brothers give him a reprimanding look, he decides to go momentarily serious. "Last we saw 'em, they were in our lair, watching something on TV. We went topside for a game of ninja tag and when we came back about an hour later, the place was trashed and they were nowhere to be found."

"None of my surveillance equipment seems to have picked up anything," Donatello adds, "and we couldn't find any clues. While Mikey and I straightened up the place, Leo and Raph went searching the sewers for them. None of us turned anything up. It's like they just… vanished."

I listened to all this intently, trying to get the story sorted out in my head. "Hm," I mutter. "Let me get back to my friend," I tell them at last, referring to Tony Stark, the man who also goes under the name Iron Man. "He's got plenty of good resources. I know someone who also keeps a journal with profiles on all of the baddies I've fought. If I come across anything that could be remotely linked to this problem, I'll let you know. If you didn't even find any blood or anything, they're both probably still alive and well. Someone wanting both a human girl and a humanoid rat can only be bad news."

"Exactly," Dontello tells me. "It leads me to believe that one of our old enemies who's known for genetic experimentation is behind this, but I really don't want to travel down that road. If you come up with anything, meet us tomorrow night in the alleyway just above these tunnels. Say, eight o'clock?"

Nodding again, I tell him, "It's a date." Turning to leave, I give Raphael one last look. He's still staring sulkily at the ground. "Remember, Romeo," I joke as I pat his shoulder, "I like flowers and chocolate." With another growl, he lunged at me. I managed to duck and dash for the exit.

I could just hear Michelangelo comment, "I like him. He's funny."


	2. Chapter 2

Secure in the shadows, I manage to sneak into my apartment without waking Mary Jane.

I attempted to call Tony on my way back, once I had changed out of my costume. He didn't answer, though. I tried not to let that bother me, since it was the middle of the night and I wasn't aware of anything bad going down. It's possible the guy just had a date. Superheroes need love, too.

Thinking of that, I grin as I move around in the darkness. MJ was probably asleep, but she never minds being woken up if I could make it worth her while. Tossing my bag with the Spidey suit towards the couch, I make my way towards the closed bedroom door.

I stop when I hear a _clunk_ sound behind me. Turning around, I realize that it's the bag hitting the floor. That's weird. Where did… my sofa go? I go over to turn on a nearby lamp, but my hand grabs at nothing but air. Starting to get just a little bit freaked out, I make for the living room's light switch, stumbling over something in the process.

The place is a wreck. The sofa is overturned, the coffee table's in pieces, and I almost tripped over a broken version of the antique Tiffany lamp Aunt May had given us as a wedding present. I look over to the front door. It was partially ajar, but it didn't look like a forced entry.

Starting to panic, I look over at the bedroom door. "MJ!" I call out her name as I dodge fallen picture frames and other debris. Wrenching the door open, my heart stops when I get a look at the bedroom. The mattress has been flipped over, the armoire's mirror is shattered, and the television's smashed. What's worse… there's no Mary Jane. She's gone.

I make a strange sound as I step into the room. I can't feel anyone's presence in the apartment, so it's safe to say that whatever happened occurred a while ago. It also doesn't look like anything's been stolen, since MJ's jewelry box is lying on the floor, her gold necklaces and diamond earrings still apparently accounted for. The only thing missing is the one thing I can't bear to lose.

As I get closer to the upturned mattress, I catch a glimpse of a piece of paper in the tangled sheets. My hopes stupidly high, I lunge for it, hoping that it's a note from MJ. Yeah, right. What would it say? _"Hi Peter. I went on a little psychotic rampage and ruined the apartment. I'm doing a little late-night shopping to recover the broken knickknacks. Sorry if you got worried. Catch ya later, Tiger. XOXO" _

That flimsy optimism definitely didn't prepare me for what's actually on the paper. Picking it up in my trembling hands, I see that it's a drawing. Someone apparently sketched what looked like a close-up of a face, focusing on a widened, terrified eye. My stomach clenches, thinking that someone had drawn a picture of MJ before abducting her. It doesn't take long, though, for me to realize that this wasn't a picture of MJ. The face was too wide, the features were too masculine. When I realize that the drawing is of a left eye, I know who the person in the picture is.

It's _me_.

My hand absently goes up to my eye, even as I just now notice the edges of my Spider-Man mask included in the pencil sketch. _Morlun_. Morlun, the vampire-like monster that stole my left eye and tried to kill me. Heck, that _did_ kill me. I literally went through hell and back after the beating he gave me, and I got a shiny new body to show for it.

But… he's dead, isn't he? Turned to dust. And even if he isn't, it's me he wants, isn't it? Why would he come after MJ when he has the power to sense me no matter where I am? The answer: to toy with me. Okay, that's easy enough. But… why would he ransack the place? MJ wouldn't put up enough of a struggle to justify why the place was trashed.

_"…the place was trashed."_

Michelangelo. He said that his home had been wrecked when his sensei and friend were kidnapped. A rat, a girl… and my wife. Is there some kind of connection?

Folding the piece of paper in half, I search the room. Being a crime fighter since high school means I've gained some investigative skills. There's something off about this whole deal. The fact that Morlun was involved seems pretty plausible. I'm even willing to admit that he's been severely weakened by our last encounter, hence why everything was a mess; MJ would have the opportunity to give him a run for his money if he was rebuilding himself out of dust particles. Yet….

"Dracula had his Renfield," I mutter quietly. When you're too weak to wreak havoc, you get one of your henchmen to do it for you. Dex. Or a new lackey. That would explain the bumbling nature of the crime. Still, there are plenty of questions left unanswered. Why didn't the neighbors call the cops? Why did he take MJ? And how do those turtles I met in the sewer fit into all of this?

The minute I start thinking of them as turtles rather than merely strange creatures, I think I've got it figured out. And if I'm right, then the turtles, their missing allies, and my wife were all in a heck of a lot of danger. I try to hope that MJ is merely bait to lure me to Morlun, but that only means that he doesn't consider her valuable enough to keep alive.

* * *

The sewers are _definitely_ not my favorite place to be. 

Bad guys can live there, sure. Fugitives, no problem. Heck, even the occasional vigilante who hasn't got the funds for a snazzy costume, I'll own to that. But a collection of humanoid turtles? Or a pack or gaggle or whatever the collective noun for them is? It seems so very unfortunate.

Costumed once more, I lurk through the same tunnels that I had chased Raph and Mikey through earlier that night. They could be anywhere, but I'm pinning my hopes that Donatello has his surveillance equipment up and running and I'd trip off some kind of alarm. Just in case, I brought a flashlight and was keeping a weather eye out for a secret passageway or something. Heck, if these guys have _radars_, there's a pretty good chance they'll find me.

"Hello?" I call out into the darkness. "Any shell-wearing ninjas named after Renaissance painters in the vicinity? Carvaggio? Boticelli? Bueller? It's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, requesting permission for a team-up. Wanna be a temporary Avenger? Hello?"

Stopping, I remember what it was that set the turtles off the last time I met up with them. "I might have some potentially urgent info about Sensei."

I heard a metallic sound behind me and realized that someone only a few feet away had unsheathed a really, _really_ big knife. "Jeez," I breathe, "it's gotten so you can't go _any_where in the city without being held up."

"What do you know about Sensei?" I don't recognize the voice as belonging to the turtles I met before, so I figure this may be the brother they were talking about earlier. I ask if he knows who I am, and he replies, "Yes, you're Spider-Man. Back to the question. What do you know about Sensei?"

"Huh, you must be the no-nonsense brother." Turning around, I'm relieved to see that the sword he's carrying isn't aimed towards me. Gently shining my light in his direction, I see that this turtle is sporting a blue eye mask and has another sword strapped to his back. A pair of swords and a blunt attitude. Remind me not to annoy this one.

"I've got my theories," I tell him. "None of them good. All of them point towards lots of trouble in store for your sensei, possibly your friend April and another innocent woman, you, your brothers, me, and pretty much any other beings like us in the entire world." This seems to take him aback, and I take the time to look around. "Nice place you got here. Got anything a little dryer, brighter, and more populated by people who'd want to hear what I've got to say?"

* * *

"You're lucky we're a bunch 'a night owls." 

Raphael regards me warily as I step into what Leonardo called the "lair." Absently replying to Raph as I look around at the laboratory over to one side, I say, "Nice to see you too, Romeo." Even under the circumstances, this still manages to earn a loud laugh from Mikey.

"So," Donatello says as he sits on the beaten-down couch, "Leo's call on the shell cell said you had some theories. I'm guessing they couldn't wait until tomorrow." Lowering his voice as though he knew that he was right, he asked, "Did this just get personal?"

I pause for a moment before telling him, "Personal's not even the right word for it." Leonardo motions for me to sit down next to Donatello, but I choose to remain standing. The rest of the turtles sit in front of me as I try to figure out how to go about telling my story. Even though a lot of what I had to say was pretty trippy, I had the feeling that four big ninja turtles who took orders from a rat weren't going to have trouble digesting anything.

Cracking my knuckles, I begin.

"I don't suppose any of you know anything about totem eaters, do you?" They all look to Donatello, who shakes his head slowly. "Right. So. Let's see. Totems are basically the core power sources of the universe. Pure animalistic energy, in a sense. It's hard to describe unless you're really deep into mysticism. At any rate, because of the way I got my powers, I'm a totem. I'm not pure, but I definitely have totemic power stored inside of me.

"As long as there have been totems, there have been creatures who feed off of their energies. Totem eaters. Vampires who drain the life force out of people like me. And, I'm pretty sure, people like you. Meta-humans and mutants, if that's what you are.

"A few months ago, I died. Big shocker, but the story of how I came back to life in a brand new package goes deep, deep, _deep_ into the mysticism, and reveals a lot more about me than I care to share. The point is, the creature that killed me was a totem eater by the name of Morlun. He's old, he's strong, and once he touches you, you're pretty much on his list until he eradicates you."

"We've got a couple of enemies like that," Mikey proclaims before being shushed.

"During one of our final battles," I continue, "Morlun managed to yank my left eye right out of its socket and ate it to absorb some of my life force. It's been replaced when I was reborn, so I don't exactly miss it. Tonight, though, I went to the home of a friend of mine and found that the place had been turned upside-down. The valuables looked like they were all in place, despite the mess. The only thing missing was her. The friend, I mean. In my search, I found this."

At this, I unfold the picture I had found on my bed and passed it to Donatello. He looked at it for a moment before passing it along to the others. When they had all looked at it, it was passed back to me. "I thought I had destroyed Morlun before I died," I go on. "He had turned to dust, but the bad guys never let themselves stay dead." Mikey rolled his eyes and looked like he was about to interrupt again, but Raphael kept him quiet with an elbow in the side.

"So here's where you guys come in. In order to survive, Morlun must feed from a being that falls into one of four totemic categories: animal, bird, human, or insect. Based on the less-than-suave way these abductions took place, I'm willing to believe that he's in a severely weakened state. I'm guessing that I almost _did_ kill him, and he's so close to death right now that it won't do for him to absorb only _one_ of those totems. He'll need all four, possibly at the same time through some ritualistic magic.

"This drawing's a taunt and with it, he hopes to acquire me and fulfill the insect totem, with enough human in me to be suffice. Your sensei, a rat, he fits the animal totem. If your friend April is really a meta-human, then she'll do for his human requirement-"

"She ain't," Raphael replies.

"Then Morlun probably didn't want to leave any witnesses," I explain quickly. "Either that, or he or his lackey were misinformed and thought that she possessed a totem."

"You're not an insect," Donatello tells me flatly.

"I'm close enough," I reply.

"But you're an arachnid! Wouldn't that mess things up a bit-"

"Donatello," I answer impatiently, "Take it from someone who's studied genetics and evolution for the better part of his life and would probably be a world-famous scientist if he wasn't superhero-ing on the side."

"Been there, done that," Donatello says somewhat petulantly.

Bringing the focus back towards my theory, Leonardo leans in and asks, "What happens if Morlun acquires the bird totem?"

I take a deep breath before I respond, "Then he'll be back at full power. He won't pose a huge danger to the average citizen, but he'll definitely be taking out mutants and metas one-by-one. The majority of those people are like you, protecting the innocent and trying to be the good guys. Once they're gone, the city's bound to fall to chaos."

Leonardo looks down, trying to take all of this in. Of course, Morlun is only one of several totem eaters all across the world, but he isn't one to feed sparingly. Especially not if he feels that he needs to make up for lost time.

Jumping to his feet, Raphael says, "Either way, Splinter's gonna die if we don't do somethin', and so are _you_. So unless ya wanna head towards the light a second time, Spider-boy, you're probably better off tellin' us where this Morlun creep hangs out."

"I don't know," I confess quietly. "He's always sought me out, but I'm guessing that his power's too weak to be able to track me down, or else he wouldn't need to kidnap M… my friend." Seeing that Raphael isn't keen on accepting that, I add, "Look, I haven't got much to go on right now. But the main I reason I came here is to get you guys out of here and somewhere safe."

"Thanks for the offer," Leonardo said as he stood. "But trust me when I say that we don't need protection. We've faced opponents like this before, possibly worse. Besides, maybe this Morlun character will come back in the attempt to snatch more animal totems-"

"Oh, I don't doubt he'll come back," I interrupt, "but it won't be for _animal_ totems." Seeing Leonardo looking at me with a puzzled expression, I look to Donatello. "You were the one who said you knew a thing or two about genetics and evolution. Morlun needs a bird totem. Can you guess why I'd prefer to keep you hidden?"

Donatello looks at me for a second, as though not believing what I was hinting at. "We're related," he finally says. Raphael and Michelangelo let out skeptical outcries, but Donatello looks down in thought. "That's what some geneticists say, anyway. Dinosaurs are reptilian ancestors, but recent discoveries have found a genetic link to birds. Whether this applies to all species or not…." He looks up at me, and I guess he can tell by my steady gaze that it doesn't really matter. "Do you know of anyplace that we'll be safe?"

I nod. "That rich friend I told you about? He hasn't answered his private phone, but I was able to get through to his butler. He's arranging extra rooms for the four of you as we speak, and setting up another one in case you want to bring April's boyfriend along. I doubt Morlun would bother him, but I can understand if you want to take protective measures."

"Right," Leonardo nods. "Raph, give Case a call a give him an abridged version of the situation. Donnie, pack a bag with any kind of equipment you think we might need. Mikey, our traveling gear. We don't know how long we'll be gone. I'm going to grab some extra weapons. We'll be ready to go in sixty seconds."

I watch as the turtles disband, following their brother's commands without so much as a question. Clearly, Leonardo is the team leader. Second-sensei-in-command, maybe? My eyes following Leonardo as he ducks into another room that seems to be filled with weaponry, I sigh as I wonder why the Avengers can't be this well-oiled.

After a while, I feel someone tap me on the shoulder. Turning around, I look down to see Mikey looking up at me, concerned. "Is she your girlfriend?" Confused, I ask him what he means. "That girl," he elaborates, "your 'friend.' Is she, you know, your girlfriend? Is that why you seem so edgy?"

Edgy? Am I acting edgy? Then I realize it: I haven't cracked a joke since I stepped into the lair. I called Raph Romeo upon my entrance, but even that was distracted. And from the looks of things, it takes the joker of the group to realize that something's off. "She's… my friend," I answer weakly. "A very good, old friend. I can't… I can't say…."

Mikey nods, cutting me off. "Y'know," he tells me, "I used to be a superhero, way back in the day. Put on a cape and cowl just like the Dark Knight and tried the whole gig. And I realized something that they don't usually tell you in the comics. Superheroes are people, too. They get mad, 'n sad, 'n happy 'n stuff. And I think… I dunno… I guess that's why I like them. They're just ordinary people, and they gotta put up with extraordinary circumstances… and that makes 'em extraordinary themselves."

He grins up at me. Weird… it was a simple statement, and yet no one's ever put it like that to me. When MJ and Aunt May didn't know that I was Spider-Man, they acted like they believed that he was the menace that the _Daily Bugle_ makes him out to be. Then when they found out, they suddenly became supportive overnight. And when I talk to Tony or Cap or Reed, they can't really look at it that way, since they're in the whole superhero business, too. But Michelangelo—a once-upon-a-time caped crusader who continues to do his fair share of thug pounding once in a while—he actually seems to understand the pressures I've had to go through ever since I got bitten by that radioactive spider. And why not? I mean, the same can be said for him and his brothers. They're just ordinary turtles, and they gotta put up with extraordinary circumstances… and that makes them pretty darn extraordinary in my book.

It only takes a second for all of this information to go through my head. In that second, Mikey tosses something in the air. "Catch," he tells me. He moves away as the object falls in my hand. It's a Hershey's bar with almonds. "We don't have any flowers," he tells me as he goes back to whatever he was doing, "but you don't give a guy enough time to get ready for a date, Juliette."

Despite everything, I can't help but laugh.

* * *

**Author's Note:** As some Spidey fans might be able to tell, I'm basing a lot of this on events in the Spider-Man _The Other: Evolve or Die_ comic series. A lot of the details are off (at this point in the comics, Peter and his family are living in Stark Tower, for instance), but I wanted to simplify things for the people who are reading this mostly for the TMNT or who don't read the comics. If you're intrigued by the story line, though, I suggest picking up the graphic novel. It's a pretty good read! -Starry 


	3. Chapter 3

"Whoa, you never told me we were goin' to no Stark Tower!"

I look back at the mammoth-sized man by the name of Casey Jones. "Yeah, well… you never asked." He and the turtles had been pretty intimidated just by the sight of the 93-story building in Columbus Square, and seemed a bit daunted about going in through the roof. I assured them that it was all right, since the butler was expecting us.

Now that we're inside, they can't help gawking at everything as we wait for the elevator. I guess I've become used to it, but they had a right to be impressed. Heck, Tony Stark _aims_ to impress.

The elevator doors open, and Jarvis is standing inside. "Spider-Man! Good to see you. And…." He trails off as he looks behind me at the four turtles and one human. I glance behind me and see that Casey is offering a sheepish grin, while Mikey's waving wildly. "I take it these are the 'brothers' you spoke about?"

"Uh," Raphael mutters in my ear, "did ya neglect to mention that we're _turtles_?"

"Not at all," Jarvis answers for me. "I was just in awe of the family resemblance. I suppose I should be thankful that your bandannas are color-coded. Step inside, please; you may call me Jarvis, and I'll be your butler for the duration of your stay. I would suggest some sleep, but so rarely do people ever actually take me up on it."

We all get in the elevator, and, as we head for the living quarters, I ask if there was any word from Tony yet. "I'm afraid not," Jarvis answers. "I wouldn't worry, though. Mr. Stark was seen in the company of a rather attractive young redhead earlier today. I'll be surprised to see him before the afternoon."

"Puh," Casey murmurs as he crosses his arms over his chest. "So the playboy's got a thing for redheads, huh? Once we find April, she ain't stayin' _here_." As Jarvis dryly explains that Tony could care less _what_ color a woman's hair was, I can't help but dwell on the coincidence that both April and MJ were redheads. Maybe Morlun's got a "thing" of his own.

The thought makes me sick, which I make a little too obvious when I hastily exit the elevator, bumping right into someone. "Well, look at who decided to swing by," says a familiar voice. "Heard you was dropping in with some new pals." He sniffs and asks, "Where'd you meet 'em? A sewer?"

"'Matter of fact," I say as I grin up at Logan. The others gather up behind me, looking at him curiously. I guess I can't blame them; Logan's only about the turtles' height and looks like a butcher on steroids. Moving out from between the two groups, I introduce them all to one another.

"Sooo…" Mikey starts, "I'm guessing you're not a tech-head who helps Tony Stark with all his gadgets and you don't look like you work here. So are you, like, another superhero?"

"Somethin' like that," Logan replies as he looks over the newcomers. "I'm with the Avengers now, but every once and a while I fall in with a group upstate known as the X-Men. Group 'a mutants."

"You?" Raphael asks. "_You're_ a mutant? You're kiddin' me! You don't look like no mutant I've ever seen."

It looks like Logan's debating whether or not to walk away from the discussion, but he decides to answer. "I was human once, kid. A long, long time ago. But sometimes, genes change. So I got the X-gene, which turned me into a human-mutant. You… you're somethin' else. You were born an animal, and now it looks like you're runnin' away from that. Either that, or you were a really ugly kid."

Raphael growls and looks like he's about to make for Logan—which would be among the most stupid things I've ever seen anybody do—but Mikey starts up again. "So you're a superhero! _And_ a mutant! That's so awesome! Can you fly?"

"… No."

"Do you have super-speed?"

"No."

"…X-ray vis-?"

"No."

Seeming to be at a loss for words, Mikey then asks, "So, what _do_ you have?" Logan smirks, and I take a step back, knowing what's coming. Holding his hand up in a fist, he extends his claws with a loud _snikt!_ Casey and the four turtles jump back, apparently having never seen anything like the students in Professor Xavier's mansion.

"Whoa," Raphael breathes. "_I_ want a pair 'a those."

Knowing a bit about Logan's past and temperament, I expect him to flare up a bit. Instead, he looks at Raphael as though he were lecturing him. "No ya don't, kid. Not if ya gotta get 'em the way I did. Remember, I said I was human once. Humans ain't born with metal-laced skeletons." He pauses for a minute before smirking again. "It'd be hell on airport security."

"Yes, well, I'm sure everyone is simply _charmed_," Jarvis brings up. It doesn't take a genius to see that he would much rather be in bed, so I let him step in front of me and lead the guys to their rooms. I'm about to join him when I feel someone jerk me back.

"C'mere, Web-head," Logan mutters. "I wanna talk t'ya." I tell him that I shouldn't just disappear on the others, but I still find myself walking besides him. "They ain't no baby turtles, Pete. I'm sure they can take care 'a themselves. It's _you_ I'm worried about."

"Shucks, Wolvie," I say, "I didn't know you cared."

"You're new to teamwork, Pete," I shift uncomfortably. He had given me this spiel before, but he had reason to. I guess, if he knew what I told Jarvis, he probably thinks that that reason still applies. "You know plenty about science, but you don't know a thing about group dynamics. The Avengers are a team, which means we'll protect your friends, and we'll protect _you_. Last time you faced this Morlun creep, we all got in line to buy lilies for your funeral. Personally, I'd rather spend my money on a Budweiser."

"Your sentiment strikes me speechless, as always, Logan-"

"Respect your elders, Slick. Teacher ain't done with the lecture." He looks at me sternly, as though daring me to speak up out against him. I'm not one to take chances with a near-immortal with a short temper. After a moment, he lowers his voice a little. "Sorry about MJ. She's one hell of a gal, and I know what you must be going through."

"Yeah ri-"

"Dammit Pete, don't play with me!" I snap my mouth shut, realizing I just struck a pretty sharp chord. "If I even gotta bring up how many times I got my heart torn out because 'a Jean, I'm gonna make ya wish that you had a shell to hide under, just like your new buddies." He pulls me to a stop and spins me around to look at him. "Point is, if it wasn't for Professor X and the X-Men, I'd have gone ballistic years ago. And I ain't no cuddly family guy or nothin'. If you got plans to go after Morlun and save your little damsel in distress, then that's fine. But if you think you're doing it alone, you're outta whatever's left of your mind!"

"I hate interruptin' a conversation that might lead to violence." I look to my left to see that Raphael hadn't stepped into the quarters that Jarvis led them to, and is instead leaning against the wall further down the corridor with his arms crossed over his chest. "But I got news for ya, Super-Claws-"

"I don't remember anyone invitin' you into the conversation, runt," Logan snarls.

"Ain't the first talk I crash, won't be the last," Raphael continues, standing straight and slowly edging towards us. Oh boy. The heady twerp and the temperamental X-Man/Avenger. The night don't get much better than this, folks. "Just figured I'd let ya know, Spidey ain't goin' _no_where alone. My sensei and one 'a my best friends are in danger. You ain't gonna see me sittin' in some posh joint, twiddlin' my thumbs and hopin' for the best."

"Raph," I start up, "I told you, you're better off hiding out until I can be sure that Morlun isn't after you. If he manages to get his hands on even _one_ of you guys before we have more details on what we're dealing with-"

"We don't even know for sure that it _is_ Morlun!" Raph screams. "And even if it is, how do we know that your 'friend' is connected to Splinter 'n April? _We_ got plenty 'a enemies who've used the people we care about to get to us; you could just be slowin' us down from our own problems to help ya out with yours!"

"Hey," Logan barks as he pushes past me and storms towards Raphael. "Let's just say that the Arachnid Kid over there has pretty sharp instincts, okay? You're doing a real crappy job of showing your gratitude, punk."

"_Gratitude?_" Raphael cries out.

"Yeah, gratitude," Logan continues. "You don't know what it was like for Spidey to go head-to-head with Morlun. And when he realizes that someone he cares about just got kidnapped by that bastard, what's the first thing he does? He goes over to a bunch of turtles who think they're on top of everything just because they carry some fancy weapons on them. He _protects_ them. And you've got the _cajones_ to claim he's slowin' ya down?"

"You know what?" Raph asks lowly as he withdraws his sai. "You've got a big mouth." No way. There is no way that they were actually going to duke it out over something so-…. Hearing the trademark _snikt_ of Logan's claws, I realize that I place too much stock in Logan's threshold for civility.

"You, pot," Logan smirks. "Me, kettle."

"Logan, put those away." Logan doesn't look back at me, but I can tell that he's heard me. The others have picked up on the commotion, and Leonardo has unsheathed both of his swords and is running to join up with Raphael. Casey, a hockey stick in hand, does the same. "Logan, I brought them here so Morlun wouldn't find them, not so you can shred them into unusable pieces."

Logan says nothing for a while. Leonardo and Casey stare Logan down with their weapons in hand as Donatello, Mikey, and Jarvis watch from the distant doorway. Logan would be able to go through the wooden hockey stick without even trying, and it wouldn't take too long to break Leo's blades. Raph's sai may be trickier to parry if only because they're smaller, but I'm willing to bet that they aren't made of adamantium, so they wouldn't hold up, either. If Logan really wanted to, he could make sure that Morlun wouldn't be able to use the turtles' totemic energies after all.

Standing straight, Logan draws in his claws. Good. Good Wolvie. I'll pay you back for this, honest. Cracking his knuckles, he turns away from the trio and heads towards his room. "Heh. Don't need the exercise."

Raphael doesn't take too kindly to this, and lunges after Logan. Anticipating this, I shoot out a web, snaring him by the shell and pulling him backwards. He falls to the floor with an angry yell. "Down boy," I tell him. "We _all_ want to give Logan a good thrashing at least once, but all things considered, he's the reason most of his teammates are still standing… and why most of their enemies _aren't_."

He gets up from the floor, angrily prying as much of my webbing off his shell as possible. It doesn't look like he's going to try and make for Logan again, which is just as well, since he disappeared into his own room. "Y'know," Raph remarks, "if _that_ guy's a friend, I can't wait to get a load of the bad guys."

"You'll get your chance soon enough," Leonardo tells him, sheathing his swords. "We all will." Looking at me, he says, "We couldn't help but overhear your discourse with Logan. Explosive temper aside, Raph's right. We're _not_ letting you face Morlun alone. We're every bit as involved in this as you are, if only because people we love are potentially in danger. And besides, it'd be dishonorable to stand aside and let you walk into a possible trap."

Donatello, who had been approaching while Leo was talking to me, steps up right in front of me. "No going off on your own. We've broken that rule enough times among ourselves to know that it should be pretty standard by now." He takes hold of my arm and drops a small device in the palm of my hand. "Here. It's a tracer. Wear it on your costume, just in case the worst should happen and we get separated. If you ever go missing for too long, we've got a way to find you."

"And here," Casey says, holding out a communicator. "Take my shell cell. I hardly ever use it, and it's got a built-in tracking device or some such thing. Let's ya know where each of the guys are, in case we need to go on a search for somebody."

"Set it on vibrate," Mikey brings up. "It feels funny."

With a laugh, I reply, "Thanks guys. No worries, though. It's been a long night, and I don't think I'm gonna be moving much until half-past afternoon. Jarvis probably has the right idea about sleep, so you should get going to your rooms. I'm going to be in the lounge, seeing if I can draw up any battle plans."

"The lounge is one floor beneath us," Jarvis tells them. "As is the kitchen. In case anyone should be tempted to indulge in a late night snack."

"Do you have any of those Bagel Bites?" Mikey asks as they slowly follow Jarvis back towards the rooms. "Especially the ones that taste like pepperoni. Mm-mmm!"

I'm about to crack another smile when I see that Raphael only moved just enough to stand directly in front of me. He still has a sai in each hand, and slowly puts them away when he sees he has my attention. "I meant what I said, Spider-Martyr," he says. "Don't ya forget that we got our own grief, but we ain't gonna leave ya to just sink or swim. The papers always show ya by yourself, but teams don't let their members slink away in the dark 'a the night. Trust me, they always find you, and you always realize that you woulda been a lot better off if ya had just let them in in the first place."

Though I don't see myself telling him this any time soon, Raphael reminded me an awful lot of Logan. Begrudgingly working alongside people they may or may not like, ultimately learning the value of that silly thing called teamwork. Using anger as a driving force rather than as a last resort. Heh… maybe _that's_ why they can't stand one another.

As though reading my mind, he turns away as he throws in, "And tell the Wolfman that if his howling keeps me up at night, I'm bashing his brains in."

* * *

It's nearly four in the morning, and I still have no leads. 

Sleeping's out of the question, at least until I have a solid plan in mind. I considered having Logan call the guys over at the Xavier Institute and see if they've had any missing mutants lately, but I have the feeling we would have heard about it already, what with that powerful psychic Emma Frost running things. I'm sure the turtles have scoured the sewers as best they could, and they hadn't turned anything up when they did a "topside sweep." Jeez, this is giving me a headache.

I rub my temple and am about to take off my mask, when I hear someone come into the room. Based on the smell of cigar smoke, I know it's Logan. "Man, Wolverine, give a guy a heart attack, why don't y-" I stop when I turn around and he that he's holding something in his arms. Actually, it's more like some_one_. An unconscious someone.

I jump to my feet as he walks over to the couch to lay her down. My hopes are dashed when I see it's not MJ. This is an older woman, possibly around Aunt May's age. Yet… what kind of little old lady wears khaki cargoes and a gray t-shirt? "Friend of yours?" I ask Logan.

"More like a friend of _yours_," he tells me. "Or a friend of your friends. I saw her from my window, wandering around the roof of the next building over. When I went to check it out, she started babbling about vampires and needing to speak to the turtles."

I blink at him, bewildered. "Wait… _this_ is April? But I was under the impression that she was a few decades _younger_ than this. I mean, if she's dating Casey, we've got a bad case of cradle robbery going on here."

"The cradle ain't what's getting robbed," Logan says as he removes something from his back pocket. "Check out her ID." He hands me a woman's wallet, which I open. The identification card affirms that her name is April O'Neil, and that she is twenty-three years old. Younger than me. A glance at the picture makes me shudder. She's a beautiful young girl, with red hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes. The person lying in front of Logan and I has gray hair, wrinkles, and I could bet that her eyes can't be described as "bright." Despite the discrepancies, it's frightfully easy to see that they're both the same woman.

"That ain't all."

I look up at Logan. He's holding out a folded piece of paper to me. Judging by the look on his face, it's definitely not something that I actually want to see. Still, I grab for it and unfold it. It's another sketch. But there's no mistaking it this time. The person in the picture _is_ Mary Jane. And there's enough detail to the picture to give me a clear idea of where she is. I now have no doubt that Morlun's involved, and I want less than ever for the turtles to follow after me.

Putting the picture down, I look away. I spy the shell cell and tracer that Casey and Donatello had given me, lying on the end table. Looking back up at Logan, I ask, "There's no possible way that you're letting me out of your sight, is there?"

He gives me a smirk and says, "I already left a message with Jarvs. He's cranky, but he's on his way down to watch after the girl and make sure that the boys in green don't realize who she is until we get back." I nod, and he tells me, "Guessin' teamwork ain't your forte."

I neglect to answer him as we leave, both tracking devices abandoned in the lounge.


	4. Chapter 4

I can't fight the feeling that we're being followed.

No matter how many times I peer back, no matter how many twists and turns I take, no matter how many times we stop, I can't shake the feeling that the turtles are going to be joining us. Wolverine tells me it's unlikely. He can't smell them anywhere nearby, and I left both the tracer and the shell cell back in the lounge. He tells me I'm probably just jumpy. Congrats, Logan, you're this generation's Albert Einstein.

We finally stop outside a wire fence. Wolverine gawks at it incredulously. "You're kiddin' me." I shake my head. After a moment of silence, he mutters, "No wonder you want the kiddies to stay in bed."

We're outside the nuclear power plant where I first defeated Morlun. The setting had been my choice, since I discovered that Morlun has an aversion to radioactivity. Prior to the battle, I had injected myself with a radioactive fluid. Though it slowed me down, it completely weakened Morlun when he tried to drain me. Why Morlun would want to come back here is beyond me. Maybe he wants to even the score on a familiar playing field. I mean, he's "died" because of me twice, whereas he's only managed to kill me once.

"Here," I say, handing a plastic case with a hypodermic needle inside to Wolverine. He looks at it, eyeing the softly glowing green liquid warily. I had managed to grab a couple from Tony's lab while Wolverine was changing into his costume."If it looks like I'm cornered, find a way to jab it into either me or Morlun. I've got a spare in case you can't get to me."

"What about you? Ain't this gonna take you down?" I shake my head, explaining that it was about the same amount I used last time, and it had only knocked me out for a few minutes. "That ain't what I mean. With my healing factor, wouldn't it be safer if it were me that-"

"I never knew you to care about being safe, Wolverine," I tell him, shoving the case into his hand. "But what little I _do_ know about group dynamics means that we've gotta trust one another. And I trust you to do what I ask of you. Do you trust me to know what I'm asking?"

Without waiting for an answer, I jump over the fence, landing in enemy territory. Less than a second later, Wolverine lands behind me. Together, we quietly dash towards the plant, which seems to have been abandoned since my last visit there.

Inside, the only light is the moonlight that shows through the foyer windows. As we go deeper and deeper into the spooky complex, though, the darkness is taking over. I wish I had been as sensible as Donatello and brought a flashlight with me, but there's no point in dwelling over what I can't change. I'll have to rely on Wolverine's sense of smell and my spider-sense to tell me when-

Or maybe not.

It looks like a large red-orange rectangle is floating in the blackness in front of us, but I soon realize that I'm looking at a door. Behind the door appears to be a flickering light. Fire? In a nuclear power plant? Even if it _is_ abandoned, that _can't_ be a good sign. "Wolv-"

"I'm on it." Without me needing to say anything, he barges towards the door, his claws fully extended and hacking an entryway for us. I swing into the room behind him, quickly assessing my surroundings even as my spider-senses go crazy.

It's a large room that's been cleared out except for two small circular platforms and two devices that look like some kind of translucent pods. The pods are occupied and facing one another, with the platforms adjacent to them and forming a circle around a huge bonfire. I can see that the inhabitant of the pod closest to me looks like a large unconscious rat of the gray-haired persuasion. Splinter.

"Peter?" My gaze quickly shifts to the pod across from Splinter's. A dark smoke has started filling the room, but I don't need to look to know who it is. Calling out MJ's name, I shoot a web towards her pod, pulling myself towards it. Even as I make my way towards her, I hear her call out, "Pete, keep back! It's a trap!" Of course it is. When isn't it?

My spider-senses are still flaring like crazy, making me wonder if Morlun was toying with them. Just as I'm about to settle right in front of Mary Jane, I see a figure step out from behind her containment unit. There's no time to dodge before a fist connects with my face, almost sending me falling right into the fire. _Ngh. Morlun's faster than I remember,_ I think to myself.

I regain my footing and go into a defensive stance. As soon as I do, I realize that the man with the iron fist is _not_ Morlun. He's tall and solidly built despite his thin physique, and his short black hair and dark eyes give me the impression that he's not much into "toying" with his enemies. He's also wearing glasses, making me wonder for a second if this was Dex after a long time of working out. But since the guy's dressed in an expensive-looking black suit, I discard that theory right away.

"So _this_ is the famous wallcrawler," he says, sizing me up. "I apologize for the cliché, but I really did believe that you'd be taller."

I hear Wolverine's voice growl besides me, "Who's the poindexter?" Like me, he's ready to jump at the slightest instigation, though my preparation is for _de_fense whereas his is _of_fense. Hm, maybe we make a decent team after all.

The stranger's eyes flit over to Wolverine, seeming disappointed. It doesn't take long for that disappointment to turn into anger. "_You_? _You're_ not supposed to be here! Where are the turtles?"

"Let's deal with one thing at a time," Wolverine tells him. "My memory's known to get a bit hazy sometimes, but I ain't registering your face. We met before?" He smirks as he adds, "Or does my reputation just precede me?"

"Make no mistake," the man says. "I know more about you than you do, at least until recently. I'll gladly go into introductions, but first I have a small business matter to take care of." With that, he raises his right arm. Ooh, goody. A wrist-mounted laser. Why do the bad guys get all the good toys?

He fires a shot directly between Wolverine and I, and we both dive in opposite directions. Somehow, I think that's what he was hoping for. Even as Wolverine makes for him, he fires another shot at the ground in front of me, forcing me to dodge to the right. As Wolverine keeps him entertained with a short dance, I realize that he's leading me somewhere, like a puppet.

Turning, I see that I'm getting closer to one of the platforms and look up to see that a pod is suspended from the ceiling, probably ready to drop at the activation of a motion sensor. He's trying to corner me into a display case. And by the sound of the sudden sharp cry from Wolverine, it looks like he's a little more resilient than the last lackey Morlun coerced into slavery.

Finally managing to sift through the stimuli affecting my spider-sense, I do a back flip just in time to avoid what could've been a very dangerous kick. Careful not to land in the trap, I right myself and blindly start shooting web shots at the guy. He uses his laser to disintegrate whatever he doesn't effectively dodge. I notice that with every dodge, he's coming just a little bit closer to me. No time for defense, Spidey; follow Wolverine's stride.

Shooting a web up at the ceiling while still pelting Laser Man with webbing, I swing towards him and manage to kick him in his side before landing behind him. Without giving him time to recover, I throw a punch at his back. Ow. Why do I get the feeling that this hurts me way more than it hurts him?

He spins around and smacks me in the face with his laser. Durable piece of equipment, I'll give him that. I can't compliment him on the workmanship, though. Being thrown halfway across the room tends to do that to me. "Pity," he says. "I had hoped that I'd be impressed."

I shake my head to unscramble my senses, and catch a glimpse of Wolverine jumping to his feet, angrily charging at the man who I now presume to be an android or something. Seriously, the baddies need to stop getting stronger. I figure that maybe tactics would work best against the monolith, so I opt to watch him fight with Wolverine.

I cringe and I hear Mary Jane cry out as Logan takes a direct laser blast to the chest at close range. Amazingly, though he's plainly in a heckuva a lot of pain, this doesn't slow him down. He jabs, and the guy ducks his head, thinking that to be the target. Instead, Wolverine got what he was going for. Adamantium claws. Strong enough to rip through even the most high-priced toys, such as wrist-mounted lasers. I almost don't blame Raphael for wanting a pair of them to call his very own.

His mouth set in a firm line, the Men In Black reject slams the heel of his hand into Wolverine's nose. My time to sit and observe is over. From my position several feet away from them, I send out two webs straight for him. He sees them coming, though, and grabs Wolverine by his hair, pulling him into the line of fire as he jumps away. Despite the bloodied nose, Wolverine's got enough of his senses together to easily slash through the bindings before they can become too, well, binding.

I web-zip towards MJ's pod, crouching along the side of it about seven feet off the floor. The containment unit doesn't feel like it's made out of glass; it's probably something a whole lot more durable. As much as I scan through the darkness, I can't find ol' Stone Wall. Looking to MJ, I ask if she's all right. For the first time in ages, I see real fear in her green eyes as she nods. She doesn't look like she's hurt at all, but whatever she's seen or heard has definitely freaked her out. "Where is he?" I ask. I don't know if I'm talking about the stranger or Morlun, but MJ's eyes look up and behind me.

I turn, expecting to see something come flying at me. I find my eyes directed towards what I had assumed to be smoke gathering near the ceiling above the fire. It turns out that I actually _recognize_ the dark red cloud billowing up above as it seemed to stare at me. There. Right there this whole time. Morlun.

I hardly have time to make this realization before a white flash of pain convulses through my body and I'm sent flying off the pod. I roll on the floor, realizing that I was only a couple of inches away from landing in the red zone and being locked in a pod of my very own. I hear a clash in front of me and look up. The stranger had apparently triggered some kind of electrical current on MJ's pod and was going to take the opportunity to strike at me, but Wolverine intercepted him.

Anything as high-tech as all of this has to have some kind of control panel, right? Peering behind the pair, it looks like I'm right. If I can get behind them and disable the pods, I don't have to worry about hostages _or_ about potentially becoming one of them. Given the fact that Morlun is just hanging around as a puffy red cloud, I don't think he's in any position to put up much of a fight.

I shoot a web towards the console, getting ready to zip my way across. Just then, Logan lets out a piercing scream. I look at him as I approach the two of them, and see that he had just been punched in the gut with some kind of glove that produced electrical currents of its own.

I try to aim a kick towards our opponent's head, if only to give Wolverine enough leeway to break free. Turns out, the glove comes in _pairs_. With his lightning-quick speed, he reaches out and grabs me by the ankle. The pain isn't as bad as it was when the electricity emanated from MJ's pod, but it was enough to make me abandon my web and fall to the floor. Man, who _is_ this; a distant cousin of Electro's?

I smell something akin to burning flesh, and look up to see wisps of smoke coming from Wolverine's costume. I don't understand it; the current isn't _that_ high. When Wolverine's pushed away, I suddenly understand. They need me alive. They can do without Wolverine. Best to get him out of the way before he foils their plans.

The stranger uses my leg to throw me aside. I feel like he might've wrenched something out of place, but I still force myself into a crouch. I look up just in time to see an expensive black leather shoe before it connects with my face. Bad guys, stop getting stronger and faster. Please.

He grabs my throat and pulls me up. Thinking fast, I send a web shot at his face. It covers his eyes and part of his nose, making me think I've pulled a minor victory. Illusions are nice while they last.

The next thing I know, I'm thrown back. Something tells me I wouldn't have flown so far if I hadn't ticked him off. I land heavily on my left shoulder. You'd think, considering my rage and determination, I wouldn't be taking such a beating. Yeah, I'd think that, too.

I just barely make it on all fours when I notice that the world in front of me seems to have grown shinier and more distorted. _Uh-oh_, I think. _Why do I suddenly know what fish in an aquarium feel like?_ I get up and reach both hands out. They touch a surface that isn't quite glass. Even with the webbing pulled over my opponent's eyes, I managed to get myself captured.

Hey God? It's me again.

"Now that the scoreboard is even," the stranger says, pulling the last of my web off his face, "perhaps it's time for those introductions I promised." From nowhere, Wolverine comes running towards his right side, claws at the ready. Without even looking, the man quickly withdraws a handheld laser from his jacket pocket and shoots him in the face. Though I know that isn't enough to kill him, Wolverine's definitely down for the count.

As though nothing had happened, the man continues. "The name is Bishop. I work for a branch of the government that protects the Earth from threats posed by non-human beings. My means have proven to be slightly unorthodox, but remarkably effective. Over the years, many of my endeavors have been compromised by four sewer-dwelling turtles and their pet rat. An embarrassing claim, I'll admit, but you can see why this has caused me such a significant amount of distress.

"Recently, I began researching reports of an etheric entity that some monster hunters claimed to be an authentic vampire. My search brought me to the remains of your friend up there, Morlun. He's been reduced to nothing but a gaseous entity feeding off the energy of human beings. With the help of a person with the ability to talk to such creatures, he's told me a good deal about himself. Among the tidbits were details about his eating habits, and I've agreed to help restore him to his former glory if he'd promise me only one thing: at least _one_ of the totems required for his ritual is one of those meddlesome reptiles, and another is their wretched rat. He agreed, so long as he could choose the other two. One of them, my unfortunate friend, is _you_.

"What happened afterwards was a rather intriguing misunderstanding. He explained that the other one be the woman who kept him from killing you, the woman you loved. He didn't know her name, but her physical description reminded me of the human girl who associates with the turtles. Luck seemed to be with me; get rid of _three_ of my enemies in a single exercise! The remaining turtles would be beside themselves and easily enough finished off.

"When we discovered the mix-up, it took some time for me to find the right girl, and I left Miss O'Neil here to satisfy Morlun in the mean time. I happened to spot you in Columbus Square with none other but my own enemies. Thinking better than to attempt to infiltrate Stark Tower, I gathered up what was left of Miss O'Neil and set her loose in the area. Unfortunately, I only achieved part of my goal."

At this, he steps slowly towards me, his conversational tone gone. "With you unable to lead the turtles here, my only recourse is to send them a message. Depending on your cooperation, this message can either be sent as a telegram, or as the babbling remains of your feral friend here. Now tell me, superhero: what is the best way for me to get into Stark Tower and to the turtles?"

"Why go to the turtles when _they_ can come to _you_?"

Bishop whirls around to see Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, and Leonardo standing by the door, their weapons drawn. He seems almost as surprised as _I_ am. How the heck did they find us? "Bishop," Raphael muttered. "Oh, how I _wish_ I could say I'm surprised."

The four of them run towards the man, and I find that I'm resorted to backseat superhero-ing. "Watch out for his gloves! And don't get caught up in one of these pods!" Seeing Donatello closest to me, I tell him, "Don, the control panel's over there! If you can disable it, MJ can get Splinter out of here and I can find some way to deal with Morlun while you take care of Bishop."

"Spider-Man," he tells me even as he blocks a punch from Bishop with his staff. "Thanks for the advice, but I've got other things on my mind right now." Unfortunately, he doesn't manage to shield the next punch, which catches him on the shoulder. I'm forced to watch his shell press against my pod as he twitches under Bishop's glove.

Luckily, with only one government agent against four ninjas, Bishop has his hands tied and leaves Donatello alone quickly enough to focus on his brothers. Donatello falls to the ground, dazed. Crouching, I quietly ask if he's okay. "Yeah," he answers, violently shaking his head to get his bearings straight. "Now that I had my mind cleared up, I think I'll go play with the control panel."

I slowly rise with him as I ask how he managed to track Wolverine and I down. He gives me a sideways look and a very small smile. "Check your left forearm, buddy," he tells me before quickly making off for the main console.

Confused, I feel my forearm as I keep a wary eye on the three turtles against Bishop. It takes a few tries, but I finally feel a very small bump in the fabric. I look down as I pick off the tiny black speck that was invisible against the black lines in my costume. A tracer. Much smaller and probably more advanced than the one Donatello had placed in my hand a few hours before. I remember him grabbing my arm before dropping the larger tracer in my palm, and figure that he had covertly bugged me. Ha. Guess he had a feeling that I wasn't going to play by the rules.

My musings are cut off when I hear a loud yelp. The angry undertone of the cry told me that it was Raphael before I even look up. Somehow, he is now airborne and heading straight towards the remaining empty pod. _Let Donnie shut the pods down_, I pray fervently. _Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry-_

Y'know, sometimes I think the Man Upstairs purposely tunes me out.

Raph lands on his shell, and I can see the clear casing slide down at a remarkable speed. Leonardo doesn't even have the chance to take a step towards him before his brother's trapped. He strikes the pod with his swords even as Raphael tries to break free with his sai, but it's no use. It almost seems as though the flames in the center grow a harsh red color as I realize that Donatello's quickly running out of time.

Hearing another outcry coming from Donatello, I bang my fist against my cell as I grasp that we've _all_ ran out of time. Mikey's going solo against Bishop and, though he's doing remarkably well, it doesn't look like he can hold out at that speed for much longer. Leonardo has run over to Donatello who, judging by his smoking shell, has just been hit by Bishop's laser. Splinter was just starting to stir but Wolverine was still motionless while MJ was looking to see what genius plan I'd come up with.

A bright flash comes from the fire, causing all movement to cease. Bishop finally bats a stunned Mikey away and steps back. I notice that he backs himself up all the way to the wall, keeping away from the circle that the pods make around the fire. Horrified, I realize that Michelangelo and Wolverine are the only ones within the circle.

"Mike!" I yell. "Get Logan out of there! Hurry!" Unlike the Man Upstairs, Mikey actually complies and dives for Wolverine. Though he's short, Logan's musculature and metal skeleton gives Mikey a bit more weight to carry than he had anticipated.

A chill goes down my spine when I see the dark red cloud slink over towards Mikey as he struggles with Logan. I'm about to tell Mike to drop Logan and make a run for it, when a better idea enters my head. "Mikey! Logan's carrying a plastic case on his costume. Grab it!"

His hands fumbling, Mikey quickly comes up with the case and opens it, looking at the needle within. Just then, he makes a startled sound as he and Logan are swept up into the cloud, and I can see that he's gripping Logan tightly as though afraid to lose him. "Inject half of that into Logan! Only half! Do it, Mikey!"

Though it seems to cause him a great amount of effort, Mikey grabs the needle and allows the case to fall to the floor. Though Morlun seems to be providing a good deal of resistance as he saps away at Mikey and Logan's strength, it doesn't seem like he can actually do anything to physically stop Mikey from doing what I say.

The response from Morlun is better than I expected. The fire flickers with a brief flash of dark green, and Wolverine is catapulted out of the cloud, colliding with the control panel. Leonardo and Donatello have to shield themselves from the sparks that flare up, and it looks like Donatello develops a bright notion. Grabbing Wolverine's limp right hand, he shoves his claws deep into the gut of the console, utterly destroying it.

The pods begin to open, though the grinding noise they're making tells me that they probably won't open all the way or will close suddenly. As soon as the gap is big enough, I quickly crawl through. MJ has done the same, and it looks like Splinter's making do, though he's moving a lot slower than the rest of us. The only one who hasn't followed suit is Raphael. He's trying, but his shell is just too big to make it through the relatively small opening.

MJ runs straight into my arms. As relieved as I am to be able to hold her, I'll be even more relieved when this is finished and I can take her back home. "MJ," I tell her, "go, help Splinter out of there and then take him outside. I'm going to try to grab Raph before taking down Morlun." She looks like she's about to argue. She'd be totally in the right to argue. But she's been through enough of these silly life-or-death situations to know that in a time like this, you _don't_ argue.

Giving me one last, long look, she runs to help the elderly rat out of his pod as I sprint towards Raphael. I can see Mikey still hanging above my head, clearly getting his life energy slowly sucked out of him. As I get to Raphael and help him to pull up on his pod, I wonder why Leonardo and Donatello haven't rushed into the circle to rescue either of their brothers.

When an anguished cry comes from behind me, I think I know why. Turning, I see MJ and Splinter both pressing against empty air, as though trying to push open a heavy door. "Great," Raphael mutters. "They've got _forcefields_." Knowing a bit about mysticism, I can go one step better. As an etheric vampire, Morlun's got control over a pretty big expanse of ether. He's not letting us go until he's good and ready to let us go… and he's also not letting anyone else _in_.

This is it. I have no choice. Though I knew that Logan's healing abilities will keep him from absorbing any permanent damage from the radiation, I have no idea what the injection will do to a mutant without Logan's powers. But I guess I'll have to find out… and do an extra dose of praying.

"Mikey!" I scream as I turn to look at the floating turtle. His skin's gone a lighter shade of green and he looks considerably weaker. Still, he's only the appetizer. When he's out of the picture, I'm going to have to act fast before Morlun turns me, MJ, Raph, and Splinter into the main course.

"The injection, Mikey! The rest of it! Use it!" Mikey feebly turns his head to look at me. The expression on his face tells me that he thinks I'm crazy if I expect him to stick himself with a needle. "Mikey," I tell him, trying not to sound as tortured as I felt, "please, trust me! It's the only thing that'll get you out of here."

"What's in it?" Raphael asks me urgently. "Spidey, what are ya makin' him do?" I don't answer. I can't do anything except gaze up at Mikey as he covers his eyes with one hand and pinches himself with the needle with the other.

From the small opening of his pod, Raphael fiercely grabs hold of my arm. "What's in that needle, Spidey? For Christ's sake, what are you doin' to my bro?" Even his harsh yelling doesn't affect me as much as watching Michelangelo clench up in pain as the radiation takes over. The cursory green flash comes from the fire once again, and Michelangelo is spat out of the ether field.

My spider-senses going off, I tell Raphael, "Duck!" At the same time, I web-zip my way out of the vicinity and land in front of MJ and Splinter. The covering of Raph's pod shatters, and Raph ducks his head for only a second before jumping out of the encasement, snarling. He was quickly snared by the Morlun cloud.

This was it. Raphael was still able to move freely within the grip of the cloud, so it was safe to assume that the rest of us would be able to, at least until Morlun started feeding. Can't let Morlun know that I've got an ace up my sleeve, so it's best to put on airs, however useless they might be. "Gotta run for it," I say, grabbing MJ and attempting another web-zip.

We don't get very far before Morlun grabs us and forcibly separates us. Mary Jane cries out, but my hand now goes to grab the case I had hidden on myself. I need to hold out as long as possible—maybe even until Morlun's fed a bit—before injecting myself. That way, there'd be no doubt that it worked.

"Splinter, catch!"

Just when I get the needle in my hand behind my back, I hear an unfamiliar female voice call out to Splinter. Moving as much as I can in thin air to look, I see that the rat had managed to dodge Morlun much more effectively than I did. Something's flying towards Splinter from outside the ether field, and I think of what a fruitless effort it is since nothing could come in. Imagine my surprise, then, when Splinter manages to easily catch it.

From what I can see, it's a small silver box. Silver. Huh, guess the horror movies are right. Silver _does_ have some kind of mystical property. A woman has pressed herself against the ether field, speaking urgently to Splinter. "Open it and toss the contents into the fire and the vapor! Hurry!" When Casey runs up behind her, I realize that this woman is the elderly version of April O'Neil. Jeez, is Jarvis gonna come in next and start waving a mop around or something?

Splinter opens the box, and the red cloud that had been making for him suddenly backs away. Grabbing a handful of a powdery substance inside the container, Splinter dashes for the fire and throws the dust in the air, where the haze seems to be the thickest. Judging by the fact that MJ, Raph, and I fall to the ground, it looks like Splinter just hit the nucleus, if Morlun even _has_ such a thing.

Motivated by the reaction, Splinter dumps the rest of the powder directly into the fire. It cackles and pops, the flames actually going white for a moment. Covering his eyes with his arm, Splinter backs away. A strange smell permeates the room. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was….

Raphael just manages to lunge for Splinter and tackle him out of the way as the fire flares up. Grabbing MJ, I protect her with my body, though I still glance behind my shoulder. If this is going to be over, I want to make sure it's really over.

The cloud seems to be getting sucked into the fire. The air pressure within the ether field seems to increase, giving me a nauseous feeling. I'm guessing this is where the climactic music would be going off if this were a movie. In reality, though, the whole thing ended rather anticlimactically, with the fire dying on itself as though its oxygen had grown thin.

There's a moment of silence. Everything had grown so dark that the only reason I know I hadn't died is because I can still feel MJ holding me tight. A small circle of light suddenly turns on, followed by another and then another. Guess the turtles remembered their flashlights.

Leonardo approaches, carrying two flashlights in his hand. By the looks of the stationary third light, Donatello had opted to stay behind with Michelangelo. Leo goes straight for Splinter, who's being embraced by a mysteriously sentimental Raphael. Leo joins in on the family reunion, and I finally feel comfortable enough to give MJ a _real_ hug.

A smaller flashlight shines as April and Casey come towards us. Since MJ's a reasonably well-known actress, I don't want to risk giving off any clues about my real identity, so I let go of her. I'm about to thank April for whatever she had done, when I notice something odd. Her gray hair was slowly turning red at the roots, and her pale green eyes were growing more vibrant. Maybe the effects of a totem eater could be reversed if the person's life isn't drained away completely? Surprised by the fact that science isn't trying to take over the situation, I decide that I don't really care. She was turning back to normal. "Nice," I tell her. "I don't know what you did, but you provided some pretty spiffy pyrotechnics."

April laughed at me, then says, "Hey, thank _you_. You were the one who took the boys to Stark Tower. If Bishop hadn't left me where he knew you could find me, I would've been history by now.

"As for what I did," she continues as Splinter, Leonardo, and Raphael move over towards us, "it was just some basic research. Bishop kept referring to Morlun as an 'etheric entity.' Once I woke up, Jarvis gave me something to eat and I asked for a computer with an Internet connection. A quick Google search on etheric entities and vampires gave me everything I needed to know. The only things that the movies were right about are that two things are most effective for sapping away dense etheric energy: silver and garlic."

"I thought she was crazy," Casey confesses. "I hardly recognized her when Mikey and I went to the kitchen, and then she told us what was goin' on. We got Jarv to tell us that you and Logan split on us, but April says she knows where you was goin'. Then she asks Jarv for garlic powder and some kinda silver container. He dug up that old music box that Splinter's got in his hands, and by that time, the guys had split. So she fills the box up with garlic and we head out here as soon as we can." He pauses for a moment before adding, "By the way, you don't think your buddy Tony minds if somebody borrowed his wheels without permission, do you?"

I don't answer him, since I see Splinter rooting through the remains of the bonfire. I ask him what he's doing, and he looks up at me, his long gray fingers covered in soot. "We have no heart to stake," he says in a raspy voice, "nor a head to cut off. Rather than risk anything malevolent rising from these ashes, it would seem wise to keep them in a container that would weaken whatever energy they may still have." He closes the music box that he had filled with Morlun's ashes and rises to his feet. "Perhaps burying it deep beneath running water is another precaution worth taking."

"Great," Raphael states, his voice still colored by rage. "So the big bad's dead. And I'm pretty sure Bishop up 'n left, like he always does when he realizes his diabolical plans don't work. So there's only one thing left." Glaring at me, he asks, "What the _shell_ did you do to my brother?"

I'm about to reply when I felt someone taking something out of my hand. Looking back, I see that MJ has found the needle with the radioactive serum. "I think I've got a clue," she murmurs wryly. Looking at me in the accusing way that only a wife can, she asks, "Radiation, Pe… Spider-Man? Really? Were you aiming to use some of this on yourself, too?"

"Radiation?" Leonardo queries, immediately concerned. "You had Mikey inject himself with radioactive chemicals?"

"It was the only to get him out of there," I say, trying not to sound like I'm on the defensive. "Look, MJ, as for shooting myself with that stuff, I did it once before, the first time I fought Morlun. I passed out for less than ten minutes, and when I woke up, I was _still_ able to defeat him. Mikey only got half the injection. It should make him queasy for a few hours, and then he'll be right as rain. Same goes for Wolverine."

I was hoping that MJ wouldn't bring up the fact that Logan has healing powers when I hear a familiar voice gruffly say, "Somebody say my name?" Leonardo shines his light to reveal Wolverine stumbling towards us, rubbing his head. His costume's a tattered mess, but he's used to that. I cansee that the laser blasts had done a number on his face, but the wounds are practically completely healed. "Who turned out the lights?"

Casey moves towards Logan, offering to help him stand straight. Raphael grabs one of Leonardo's flashlights and heads towards Donatello and Mikey. "So if _he's_ fine," he says, "then Mikey should be wakin' up soon, too." MJ leans in against me and asks if they know about Logan's healing factor. I answer her by elbowing her lightly.

Mikey's still unconscious, but we gather him up and leave that place behind, heading for Stark Tower.


	5. Chapter 5

"I leave the place for one night and come back to find nine new house guests."

I grin up at Tony, aware that he can't see it through the mask. MJ and I were sitting in the kitchen when he waltzed in, apparently having been filled in on recent events by Jarvis. "Sorry you missed all the fun, Tony," I tell him. "Jarvis said that the rest of the Avengers were on some mission in the West Coast, and you were last seen in the company of a member of the fairer sex. We all know what happens when _that_'s the case, don't we?"

Hardly repressing a smile, he hides his face in the refrigerator as he states, "I plead the fifth, thanks very much." I look over at the time on the microwave. 5:15am. Chances are, I really don't want to hear any of the stories he'd tell after coming home at that time. At least, not with MJ in the room. "I'm guessing the costume's not coming off until the little green men and their friends head home?"

"Trials and tribulations of being a superhero," I reply. "We can't all be highly successful and well-liked billionaires." He looks at me as he takes out a bottle of beer and says that it he hasn't acquired another billion in _weeks_, which earns him an eye roll from Mary Jane.

"I'm grabbing a spare bedroom, Tiger," she tells me as she stands up. "Getting kidnapped and taking part in a dark ritual that includes a rat, a turtle, and a spider can take a lot out of a gal. You wake me when we hear the status on Mikey, okay?" As she kisses me on the cheek, I flash her a thumbs up sign. I watch her as she leaves, then look down with a sigh.

"Still no word from the turtles?" I shake my head. We had taken Mikey to the infirmary at Stark Tower, where he was being looked after by Donatello. I had offered to help, but Raphael literally threw me out of the room. Judging from the fact that none of the turtles had come out to speak to me or give me any updates, I'm guessing that the news is either not very good, or they're purposely making me squirm for subjecting their brother to so much potential danger.

"You know," I say, putting my head in my hands, "with all the stuff I go through, you'd think that I didn't already have a guilt complex from the beginning." Tony walks over to me and puts a hand on my shoulder, but I bat it away. "I mean, come on. Because of me, half a dozen innocent creatures were in trouble tonight, and I even manage to bring my wife and my teammate into this mess. I hadn't even thought to check in on Aunt May until we were on our way back, and then I woke her up and scared her half to death when I _did_ check up on her. Maybe it would have been better if I had just stayed dead. Everything I touch just unravels."

"In that case," says Wolverine's voice from the doorway, "don't touch any 'a my costumes. I go through enough of them on my own without needin' _you_ to unravel 'em." I look up to see him leaning against the entryway in his civilian clothes, his arms crossed over his chest. "Trouble with _you_ is, ya got the whole world on your shoulders and you're just too skinny to take up the weight."

"I agree with you, Mr. Logan."

Wolverine peers behind him and moves out of the way, allowing Splinter to come into the kitchen. "Ninjas," Logan mutters. "Why do I always end up fallin' in with ninjas?" Splinter asks him something that I can't understand, and I'm surprised when Logan answers back… in Japanese. They seem to be exchanging some rather sarcastic words, leaving me all the more astonished when Logan smirks and gives Splinter a small bow at the end of their conversation. Tony and I glance at one another, perplexed.

Walking towards me, Splinter tells me, "I have not had the opportunity to thank you for your assistance, Spider-Man, or for the gracious hospitality despite your absence, Mr. Stark." A little unsure of ourselves after the exchange Splinter just had with Logan, Tony and I tell him that it was no problem, and Tony even offers a tiny bow in response. Looking to me once more, Splinter continues, "As for Mr. Logan's words, what little I know of you leads me to believe that he is correct. You are a passionate, loyal, and most honorable man, but you cannot control what Fate decides to put in your way."

"Thanks for the lecture, Sensei," I tell him, trying not to make it seem like I'm belittling him or his words. "But this is the time I usually wake up for my day job, and I still haven't come near a bed. I don't think any valuable life lessons are going to sink in this time around." Standing, I ask about Michelangelo.

"He is awake," Splinter replies. "And, true to your words, he is—as you would put it—queasy. That is the main reason for me being down here. I was wondering if I could track down this butler of yours and request the use of a mop… and a rather big bucket."

"Oh no," Tony cried, dropping the bottle onto the table. "He didn't get sick all over the new equipment, did he?" Even as Splinter answers that he did not, I tell Tony that it doesn't matter; it isn't like he doesn't have the means to replace everything in the entire mansion at least twice over.

"I can grab a mop, Splinter," I tell him, already heading towards the broom closet. "Despite the anti-guilt trip that you just tried to take me on, it's still really my fault that Mikey can't keep his Bagel Bites down, so I guess I can bite the bullet."

"There's somethin' I wanted to talk with you about, Slick," Logan tells me as I grab some cleaning supplies. "And now that I think about it, I'm thinkin' Splinter should give it a listen, too." Not in any rush to clean up a giant turtle's radioactive puke, I ask him what it is.

"Splinter," Logan continues, "this Bishop guy… he ever had any artistic leanings?" Splinter eyes Logan carefully before replying in the negative. Looking at me now, Logan adds, "And from what you told me, it doesn't look like Morlun had any hands or even a solid body, did he?" Not liking where this is going, I too reply in the negative. Looking at me, Splinter, and Tony now, Logan exclaims, "Then who the _hell_ drew those stupid pictures?"

There's silence as we all consider this. I think for a moment that Bishop had merely done it as a way to set up a trap. The more I think about this, though, the more I realize how unlikely it is. I mean, I can understand him breaking into my house and wrecking the place while abducting MJ, but what about the picture he left in the bedroom? The only person who had that view of my eye being ripped out could have been Morlun. Unless….

"Funny thing," I murmur, "the minute I set foot into that room, my spider-senses went crazy. I thought Morlun was purposely manipulating them, but now I wonder… what if there was somebody else in there? Somebody… or some_thing_?"

"There wasn't," Logan says bluntly. "I would've noticed. _You_ would've noticed. The only way there could've been somebody lurking in the shadows is if that person was _part_ 'a the shadows."

"That's just it," I insist. "I mean, after I came back to life, I had a whole bunch of nasty stuff from the Other Side follow me back. Maybe whatever it was that was lurking was actually sitting in the astral plane, watching from the safety of the intangible world."

"It is possible," Splinter agrees. "This would not be the first time I or my sons have witnessed an attack from mystical forces. "

"Whoa, time out," Tony brings up. "I thought somebody told me that this guy Bishop was a government agent. Why would someone working for the United States government be making pacts with 'mystical forces,' especially if his mission statement is to protect people from non-human attacks and he's putting innocent people like MJ in danger?"

"No," I realize, "he didn't say that he protects _people_. He just said he protects the _Earth_. _And_," I add while snapping my fingers, "he also brought up that he was able to speak to Morlun with the help of someone who could talk to those kinds of beings. Splinter, did you ever know Bishop to have any contacts with mediums, psychics, or-"

"Psychics!" Logan proclaims. "I can give the folks at the X-Mansion a ring. Emma might have picked up somethin' weird with the psychic channels or somethin' like that."

"Since we all seem to be in agreement that sleep is for the weak," Tony adds, "I can run a background check on Bishop, see if he has any friends who fall into that category."

"Right," I say. "And once I'm done cleaning up after Mikey, I'll see if I can get in touch with Dr. Strange. As a sorcerer, I'll be disappointed if he _can't_ come up with something."

Logan, Tony, and I start off on our separate ways. "Excuse me, gentlemen," Splinter says quietly. We all stop and turn to look at him. "In the spirit of keeping our options open, may I suggest the possibility of a camera?" We look at him blankly before he continues, "Having been a prisoner of Bishop and of this Morlun's for nearly three days, I can attest to having never seen another person—physically or abstractly—enter the chamber, despite spending much of my captivity in deep meditation. Yet I, too, had the distinct impression of being watched. It is wholly possible that a third party was involved, keeping a watchful eye via a hidden surveillance camera."

We stare at him, dumbfounded. Logan was never one to easily believe in things he couldn't experience with his senses, and Tony and I both consider ourselves to be men of science. Yet it took an anthropomorphic rat to bring us back down to reality. Wow, the world's a funny place sometimes.

"Maybe," Logan finally says, "but that don't make our plans any less valid. If you and Spidey both feel like there was somebody else there, then we gotta find out if there actually _was_, then find out what they want. You'd be surprised what the X-Men could come up with, so I'm still gonna give 'em a call. Tony's got a good idea in findin' out as much about Bishop as he can, since none of us Avengers know what we're dealin' with. And Doc Strange would be a heck of a savior in helping us deal with what's left of Morlun to make sure he don't come back." Turning away, he heads out of the kitchen as he says, "As for sleep, I'll do that when I'm good 'n dead. And I don't aim on being good _or_ dead for a long time."

"Ta-da!" I exclaim sarcastically. "Wolverine, gentlemen! Give him a hand and don't forget to tip well." I look down at Splinter, wondering if he always looks so haggard. "Splinter, I suggest you stay here and grab a bite to eat while I take care of Mikey. You definitely could use some food in your system, and watching me clean up after a sick turtle isn't going to help your appetite any."

Making a sound of agreement, he mutters, "You are right. I still remember what it was like when Michelangelo had the flu." He shudders and I find myself all the less anxious to go upstairs. After asking for Tony's express permission to raid the fridge (Tony probably can't remember the last time someone actually _asked_ first), Splinter hangs back in the kitchen while Tony and I make for the elevators.

"It never fails," Tony remarks. "The bad guys never stay dead, never died to begin with, or always have a secret accomplice." Leaning against the wall as we wait for the elevator, he comments, "It must be nice to be evil. It's pretty much guaranteed immortality."

"It's the same deal if you're a superhero, though," I remind him. "So the only people we've got to feel sorry for are the normal humans." The doors open, and Casey and April step out, surprised to see us standing there. "Speak of the devil."

"Why does everybody always say that when me or Raph walk in a room?" Casey asks. I look down at April. She has been slowly recovering ever since Morlun's defeat, and now looks exactly like the picture I saw on her driver's license. For once, that was actually a good thing. Cute. It's like looking at a smaller version of MJ.

"We thought Splinter'd be coming up," she tells me, looking at the mop and bucket I'm holding. "We came down to look for him. Donnie and Leo already cleaned up the majority of the mess." I tell her that they should have waited for me, since I'm the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Maid. She laughs, then eyes Tony curiously. I guess no one got around to introducing them. Fortunately, Tony's the outgoing type.

"You must be April O'Neil," he says with a suave smile, offering his hand.

As she's about to take it, Casey says, "Lemme guess. You're Tony Stark." Tony replies that he is, making Casey grab April's hand and lead her away. "I've heard enough about you to know that you touchin' my girl ain't the best of ideas."

"Casey!" April cries out, embarrassed.

"Ya shoulda stayed old for a couple more hours," I hear Casey mutter as they disappear into the kitchen.

Tony and I step into the elevator. After a moment, he asks, "Jarvis was talking about me, wasn't he?" I whistle innocently, which is pretty difficult to do under a mask. With a chuckle, Tony dryly states, "Remind me to fire him."

I get off the elevator when I arrive to the infirmary, leaving Tony to continue on to his suite. April and Casey had apparently left the door to Mikey's room open, because I can hear loud noises coming from within. It doesn't take long to realize that Raphael is arguing with someone. What a surprise. "I ain't bein' headstrong! Quit callin' me headstrong! You know as well as _I_ know that this ain't where we should be."

"Raph," ordered a voice that I take to be Leo's, "shut it. He's done a lot for us. We got Splinter and April back, didn't we?"

"Sure," Raphael retaliates, "but they wouldn't 'a gone missin' in the first place if it hadn't been for _him_! Jeez, come outta your shell, will ya, Leo? No matter how you slice it, it's _his_ fault, and Mikey's laying there puking his guts out every few minutes and why? Because it's _his_ fault! If he had only held out a couple more minutes, then April woulda come to the rescue and Mikey wouldn't be hurling like there ain't no tomorrow."

"Yeah, and I'm sure that clairvoyance is among Spider-Man's super powers," Donatello says tiredly. "Look, Spidey explained it to us, and he sounds like he knows what he's talking about. He had used a dosage twice as high on himself, and he didn't tell us that any side effects sprung up."

"Yeah, but Mikey's a mutant-"

"And Spider-Man, we can presume, _isn't_. We're kinda used to the whole radiation bit, Raph."

"Exactly," Raphael barks. "It was glowing green ooze that got us into this in the first place. What if Mikey mutates further? Just because there was no bad side effects on some beta-human, or whatever Spider-Dork calls himself, don't mean that it's gonna stay that way in other people. _You_ talk about that all the time, Donnie. Scientific variables or whatever."

He was right. As antagonistic as he was, Raphael was actually right. I had assumed that Mikey and Wolverine were the same kind of mutants, humans born with the X-gene. I had totally forgotten about Raphael's conversation with Logan earlier that night. What was it that Logan said? "You look like an animal whose running away from that," or something. For some reason, it never clicked that these four turtles were actually _turtles_, and were exposed to some kind of radiation that made them bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter. And now that Mikey's been exposed to yet more radiation, I've just put his entire way of life on the line. Wow, ladies and gentlemen, meet Peter Parker, the world's slowest smart person.

I was so busy going down the familiar road of a guilt trip that I zoned out on the conversation for a moment. When I snap out of it, I hear Leo's voice rising above Raph and Donatello's. "-can't you just keep _quiet_? Don, stop encouraging Raphael. Raph, _stop_ acting like a five-year-old. You're screaming about Mikey's fate and physiology as though he's not lying right here in front of you. I don't care if you're angry. I don't care if you want to discuss genetic theories. But if you're not going to do it in a civil tone, then get the _shell_ out of here before I'm forced to throw you out."

There's a moment of silence, and I take the opportunity to slowly peer into the room. Mikey's lying on a hospital bed, looking decisively pale but fully conscious. Raphael and Donatello are looking down, shamed into silence by their brother. And Leonardo's glaring at them with an unexpected display of anger, reminding me of why I had resolved to never make him angry.

"We have our sensei," he continues in a quieter tone. "We have our friend. We have Mikey. We even managed to get the brother that would have been used in the ritual. So why are we fighting? Donatello can keep running some tests in the lair once Mikey's well enough to be carted out of here. We have a new ally in Spider-Man. And maybe with Tony Stark's influence, we can find some way to stop Bishop once and for all. All in all, I can't understand what we have to be so cranky about."

"Sleep deprivation," Donatello brought up matter-of-factly. His scientific attitude after the heated exhibition of emotion does well to break the tension in the room. The four brothers laugh quietly, their anger already forgotten. It's times like this when I wish I wasn't an only child.

Going over to Mikey, Raphael asks, "So, what's new with you, doofus? Emptied out the contents of your stomach, or is that completely impossible for you?"

"Naw," Mikey replies. A bit of my guilt comes back when I hear the weak tremor in his usually-exuberant voice. "I've probably still got a couple of chicken pot pies and some servings of strawberry ice cream from last week in there. You're probably better off keeping your distance."

"Heh," is Raphael's only response. After a while, he says in a much more serious tone, "So Mikey. Question. That stuff you shot yourself up with… did you know what it was? I mean, did ya have any idea what it would do?"

"C'mon Raph," Mikey answers after an almost undetectable hesitation. "It was green, it was glowing, it was in a needle, and I watch a lot of sci-fi movies. I didn't have to be Donnie to figure it out."

Seeming to consider this, Raphael then asks, "So… why'd you do it? If ya knew what it was, and you could figure out that it'd make ya sick or possibly _kill_ ya… why'd you inject it into you?"

I look at Michelangelo's face closely. He doesn't seem to understand Raphael's straightforward question. I don't know why he doesn't understand it until he finally answers. "Because Spidey told me to. We're on the same team. If he told me I had to do it because it was the only way to defeat the bad guy, then I'd do it. No time for questions." Raphael looks down, seeming to be in deep contemplation. "What?" Mikey asks. "You think it doesn't make sense because you can't imagine yourself doing it?"

Raphael doesn't reply right away. Finally, he says, "No. I think it doesn't make sense because I woulda done the same thing… and for the same reason."

None of the brothers say anything for a while. I don't know what to think. First Raph wants my head on a platter and now he's admitting that he would have followed my orders regardless? Wha-….

Then it hits me. I remember verbatim what Raphael had said to me earlier. _"We ain't gonna leave ya to just sink or swim. The papers always show ya by yourself, but teams don't let their members slink away in the dark 'a the night. Trust me, they always find you, and you always realize that you woulda been a lot better off if ya had just let them in in the first place."_ Raphael would have done the same thing Mikey had done because in his mind, he had already let me in. He considered me to be part of their team. And I still ran off and tried to handle things my own way.

Making myself visible, I wait for the turtles to notice me. When they look up, I say, "Knock-knock. It's your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Maid, ready for puke-duty." Hey, I already used the joke with April, but they don't know that.

"The costume hides your apron real good," Raphael smirks.

"Not to mention it does wonders for my figure," I crack in return as I enter the room. "Splinter's in the kitchen. I told him that he looked like he'd be better off eating something after two days of captivity rather than staying up and turtle-sitting. It looks like Casey and April joined him."

"Why?" Mikey asks. "Was he coming apart? Get it?" He begins to laugh loudly, but stops with a sick look on his face. "Ew, I think I taste week-old chicken pot pie." Raphael and I back away from him, with me holding the mop out as though it's some kind of talisman.

"I'm surprised you're this lively," I tell him as I set the bucket on the floor. "Morlun had a pretty decent sampling of turtle pot pie, so I was half-worried that you wouldn't be able to move for a while." As an afterthought, I reluctantly bring up, "And injecting yourself with bright green ooze probably didn't do much to help out, either."

"Let's not go there again," Leonardo says as he sits on the windowsill. "We just had a little brotherly spat about the ethics of making a small sacrifice for the greater good."

"You call the stuff _I've_ hurled up a 'small sacrifice?'" Mikey asks incredulously. "Bro, _you're_ the one who said that that was even worse than the time I got the flu." Looking at me, he quickly adds, "Don't mind them. They're just keeping an eye out to make sure that I don't mutate into some huge, evil, turtle-eating monster." With a glance to Donatello, he finishes, "Because _that's_ never happened to any of us before."

"No one said I was evil," Donatello answers, leaving me to wonder about the details. "I was just big, strong, and mean-tempered. Kinda like another Ra-"

"Don't say it, bro," Raphael cuts in. "Not unless ya want Spidey to have to clean up your teeth from the floor." Hoo boy… brothers. Never mind; I think I'll stick to being an only child.

"How's MJ doing?" Leonardo asks me. "She looked like she was a little shaken up." I told him that she was all right. After all, being friends with a superhero that half of New York City despises tends to put her in these situations more often than I'd prefer.

"Yeah, uh-huh," Raph smirks. "'Friends.'" I glance at him for a moment before he explains, "C'mon, Spidey, ninjas are an observant bunch. Ya think we wouldn't notice the ring on her finger and the fact that you two have been attached at the hip since we got outta the power plant?"

"Eep!" Mikey exclaims. "Married? Spider-Man's _married_? I thought she was just your girlfriend or something. Whoa, how do you… I mean… doesn't she kinda mind you being out nights 'n stuff?"

Donatello lightly slaps Mikey in the back of his head. "That's none of your business, Mikey." Looking at me, he adds, "And even though April tells me that she recognizes MJ, Spidey's secret identity is none of our business either. So tell me, Spider-Man: are actresses really as temperamental as they say?"

I decide that I'm better off not answering after sensing someone in the corridor. Looking back, I see Tony sprint into the room. "Spider-Man," he says to me. Judging by the look in his eyes, I can tell that now isn't the time to crack jokes. "I think you should see this."

Seeing that he's got a piece of paper in his hand, I excuse myself from the turtles and exit into the hall, leaving the mop behind. Tony grabs my arm and pulls me further down the hall, obviously not wanting to be overheard. Since we're dealing with ninjas, I don't think we have a choice in the matter. I humor him, though, as we turn a corner.

"I sat down at my desk to start a search on Bishop," he whispers. "When I reached into my jacket to look for something, I ended up grabbing this picture that my date had given me. I remember Logan bringing up something about who drew the pictures, so I found the other two that were left by Bishop." He hands me the folded piece of paper, "They match. All three of them."

Surprised, I snatch the paper out of his hand and unfold it. The picture creeps me out, and not just because it's clearly drawn by the same person who did the other two. The subject is obviously some kind of demon, probably of the female persuasion. It's a little hard to tell when you haven't boned up on demonology recently. At any rate, it's got long dark hair and two large, curved horns protruding from its forehead, and it's wearing some kind of black-and-white robe or dress. I notice, with some disdain, that it's also wielding a huge and powerful-looking weapon, possibly a halberd. "Seems like a heck of an interesting date," I remark.

"She told me she was a comic book artist," Tony protests. "I had no reason to doubt her. Come on, _you're_ the one with the spider-sense. _I'm_ just the guy with the cool suit." I ask him how he met her, and he answers, "Earlier today, I bumped into her while buying the newspaper. She recognized me and told me that the main character in the new series she was creating was loosely based on me, and was wondering if I could spare some time for an interview. One thing kind of led to another, I guess."

"Oh, Tony," I say, exasperated.

"No spider-senses," he reminds me.

"Did you at least manage to get her name during the course of your… whatever?"

"Juliet," he tells me. "Juliet Savanti. I did a search, and nothing's turned up."

"Savanti." Tony spins around, not having seen Leonardo sneak up behind us. The turtle is looking down in contemplation as he mulls over the name. I ask him if it sounds familiar, and it looks like he almost wants to grimace. "Unfortunately, yes. Only the person I've dealt with was named _Romero_ Savanti."

"Romero?" Tony asks. "And Juliet? I'd ask if they're brother and sister, but I don't want to think of the implication of parents giving their children names reminiscent of tragic lovers." Leonardo asks for the paper, and I hand it to him. He narrows his eyes as he scrutinizes the picture.

"Siblings or not," he murmurs, "they're definitely of the same class of demon."

"Demon?" I peer around the corner to see that Donatello had followed after Leonardo. "Did I just hear you say 'demon?'" He apparently just made it to the scene, so I fill him in. Shaking his head, he looks at me and Tony as he comments, "Man, one of you is married to an actress and the other one dates demons. You superheroes sure have the most interesting love lives."

"She looked human!" Tony insisted.

"Right," I say, trying to figure out if we were in any immediate danger. "So this explains the strange presence that both Splinter and I picked up on. And this could also explain who it was that Bishop had 'translate' Morlun for him. The question is, how does she connect to both Bishop and Morlun, and is she going to strike again any time soon?"

"If she does," Leonardo responds, "we're in hardly any shape to fight. Master Splinter and Mikey are weak, and the rest of us are exhausted. Despite this, the best thing we can all do is get some rest and deal with this as soon as we're all recharged."

I'm about to argue when Tony brings up, "I agree. Even _with_ the mask, Spidey, I can tell that you're feeling the effects of the night. Go find MJ, get some sleep, and we'll reconvene in the kitchen at say… ten o'clock?"

The turtles are already agreeing to this, and I feel outnumbered. "Okay," I respond quietly. "Ten o'clock." I wave to them as I head off towards the elevator. I _was_ exhausted, and the turtles don't seem overly concerned about this Romero/Juliet business. I figure they'll give me the details on their dealings with Romero in the morning, and Tony could find some way to track Juliet down, too. If she's going to make a move, she'll make it whether or not I'm asleep at the time.

As I step into the elevator, I hear Donatello remark, "Looks like Tony's on puke duty instead."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Savanti Juliet is a real characer from the original TMNT comics. She appeared only in one issue, and I only know what the short synopsis in the official TMNT website tells me about her. As such, I have taken some creative liberties. I apologize to anyone who is disappointed with her characterization. Don't sue me or kill me; I have no money and you really don't want to have to think up a place to stash my body.

Also, for those who don't know, a halberd is basically a long pointed pike with an axe head attached. They were mostly used by European knights.

Other than that, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

My eyes flash open as I feel an unfamiliar presence in the room. 

Realizing that I don't have my mask on, I cover my face with one hand and send out a blind web shot with the other as I roll off the bed. I hear my web hit someone and feel my mask on the floor. I put it on even as I recognize the surprised outcry as Mikey.

"Whoa, ow!" Mikey exclaims. "Good afternoon to you too, Mr. Sleepyhead." Slowly making my way to my feet as I absently realize that I'm still wearing my costume, I ask him for the time. "It's one o'clock. Perfect time for a hearty breakfast. Please tell me there's waffles in this joint."

"One o'clock?" I ask. "In the afternoon? But… oh man. Where's MJ? Where are Tony and your brothers? I was supposed to meet them at ten."

"Yeah, about that," Michelangelo says sheepishly after prying my webbing off his face. "They kinda decided that you should get some rest and uh… they split."

"_What?_"

"Hey, they left _me_ behind, too!" Mikey cries out, taking a step back as I advance towards him in shock. "Raph said somethin' about 'fair is fair.' You took off yesterday because Morlun was your enemy. Well, after talking it over with everyone, the guys decided that anyone with the name Savanti was _our_ enemy. So Raph, Leo, Donnie, and Splinter went to check up on the address that this Juliet chick gave Tony, and Tony invited himself for the ride. Casey and April took MJ home, promising to watch over her until this all blows over, or until you woke up and went to get her. MJ said that she didn't expect you to get up anytime soon, and even when you do, you're more likely to go all superhero on her, so she says, 'Go get 'em, Tiger.'" With a laugh, he taunts, "Nya-ha, she calls you Tiger. How cute."

"Wait," I say, trying to understand everything. "MJ took April and Casey to our _home_? I would have thought that she'd realize that maintaining a secret identity is hard when you've got a couple of strangers sitting around your living room!"

"Easy there, Spidey," Mikey tells me, "you're missing a couple of things. First of all, MJ _wanted_ to go home. She was going to go by herself, but Tony didn't think it would be such a good idea in case someone was still intending on using her to cast an evil spell. When that came up, we thought we'd better protect April, too, so Casey offered to watch over both of them at _April's_ place. So they're all snug as a bug in a rug in a nice, un-trashed little apartment, and I've got the address for you in case you decide to head over there early. Secondly, you forget that April knows who MJ is. Mary Jane Watson-Parker, star of Broadway's _The Importance of Being Honest_… or is that _Earnest_? Anyway, a quick search on her is all it would take for us to know your name and after getting that, Donnie _or_ April could be super-sleuths and track down any other detail we'd want to know, from your shoe size to the way you like your eggs. Point is, we _don't_ wanna know any of that stuff. We know that you're Spider-Man, and you're awesome, and you're one of the good guys. That's pretty much all we need to know." Taking a deep breath, he finishes, "And there's my long-winded monologue for the day. So how about we refill my stomach and get to some superhero-ing, huh?"

Rubbing my head, I try to wrap my mind around this. 'Wait… if the guys were so worried about April, why did they take Splinter with them?" Was I so burnt out the night before that they would rather have their newly-freed sensei fighting by their sides than me?

"He wanted to go," Mikey states simply. "And he's the Master. What the Master says, goes. It's a ninja thing." I decide that that's fair enough and tell Mikey to wait for me while I wash up in the bathroom. He gives me a thumbs up while I'm still trying to shake the sleep from my eyes.

Inside the bathroom, I close the door behind me and take off my mask. Looking in the mirror, I have the usual morning thought: am I taking my mask off, or trying to put another one on? _No time for philosophy, Pete_, I tell myself as I turn on the cold water in the sink. _You just get yourself ready. If this demon that the turtles are after is somehow connected to both Morlun _and_ a government agent, chances are that they'll be needing all the help they can get._

Even through the rush of the water and of my own thoughts, I still hear noise coming from the bedroom. Michelangelo. Singing. From the sound of it, it's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll." Ha. I guess nothing rattles this kid's spirits. Drying my face, I call to Mikey, "So, judging by the sound of it, I'm guessing you're feeling better, huh?"

"Yup. Just needed to get those gooky chemicals out of my system. Two hours of barfing pretty much cleared that problem right up." I slip my mask on and leave the bathroom. The guy's literally sitting on top of the large wardrobe, dancing to the music that's still going on in his own head. He leaps down to the floor as he tells me, "Take my advice; _never_ use radioactivity as a source for mutating or power-ups or anything. All it does is make you feel like someone's whacking a hot eggbeater around the inside of your stomach."

"Um… I'll keep that in mind. Anybody ever tell you that you're weird?"

"Raph, but I've learned to tune him out."

Once we're off the elevator, he's back to his singing again. Actually listening to the words, I realize that they're rather appropriate. I wonder if he does that often. "Well, get out of that bed, wash your face and hands. Get out of that bed, wash your face and hands. Well, get in that kitchen, make some noise with the pots and pans." Mikey crashes into the kitchen, crooning out the chorus. "Well, I said shake, rattle, and roll. I said shake, rattle and roll. Well, you won't do right to save your doggone soul!"

Inside the kitchen, Logan and Jarvis stop what they're doing and gawk at him. I hang back in the doorway, scratching the back of my head. "Oh goody," Logan says gruffly before biting into his hamburger. "Look who's feelin' better."

"I don't see an off switch," I tell him as I look Mikey over, "so I think we're stuck until we have another reason to stick him full of chemicals." Heading for the refrigerator, Mikey spares me a glance and sticks his tongue out at me.

"Speaking of," Logan tells me as I sit besides him at the counter, "next time, give me warning when you've got any intention whatsoever of pumping me full 'a radioactive drugs to save my life. I woke up this morning feeling all itchy." I smirk, realizing that Logan's healing factor had actually accommodated for more than I had thought it would.

"You know," Mikey says, pouring himself a glass of orange juice, "I bet a nice, cold bath would clear that problem right up. Ooh, and maybe some bubbles! Man, I haven't had a bubble bath since… wait, I never had a bubble bath. But they seem like fun. Hey Jarvis, we got any bubble bath around here? If we do, I think Spidey should take a dip. He slept in his costume, and after the beating he took last night… phew!"

"Mikey, how do you manage to talk so…" I trail off when I realize what he just said. "Wait, are you saying I smell funny?" He throws his head back and laughs, and I see that even Logan manages a lopsided smile.

"_I_ wasn't gonna tell ya," Logan says.

Laying my head on the counter, I mutter, "Great. Just great. The guy who killed me managed to come back from the dead with the help of a secret agent and a demon, and instead of fighting said demon with everyone else, I get told that I offend the olfactory senses of someone who lives in a sewer." _Typical Parker luck_, I'm about to say, but keep it to myself.

"It's nothing a little Febreeze can't cure," Jarvis says, ever the diplomat. Slipping me two pieces of paper, he adds, "This here is the address to the O'Neil residence, where Mary Jane is currently awaiting your arrival. This one has the supposed address of the young woman Mr. Stark was with last night. Since Mary Jane knows you so well, she asked that I give you a message: 'go get 'em, Tiger.'"

Michelangelo chuckles once again about the "Tiger" epithet, but I ignore him. It's just as well, since encouraging him will only lead to him talking more, which means it'll take longer for us to head out. I should be concerned about taking Mikey along after what I put him through the night before, but seeing as how he was still humming that Elvis Presley song, I figured he's as ready to brawl as ever. Looking to Logan, I ask, "You game for a little demon-hunting excursion?"

"Looks like you've got yourselves covered," he says, finishing his hamburger. I notice now that his denim jacket is lying on the counter, and he only ever takes that out when he's looking to do some traveling. "Four turtles, one rat, one spider, and one hunk of metal, all against one little demon. I'd normally be in, but that call I sent out to the X-Men ended up reminding people of how much they actually miss me. They're takin' some students on a field trip this afternoon around the city, and seeing me around will scare the kids into behavin'. Besides," he adds, standing up, "much as I hate to admit it, demons ain't my forte. Leave that to the people with brains… or to other demons. Maybe I'll send one of the X-Folk up there to see how you're doing."

As Logan puts on his jacket, Michelangelo looks up from the sandwich he had made for himself. "Aw, you're going?" Mikey asks Logan. "No fair! Last night, you were all unconscious 'n junk. Now you're skipping out on a possible fight all together? When am I gonna get to see your claws in action?"

"If you're not careful," Logan snarls, extending his claws, "it's gonna be _real_ soon." Satisfied with Mikey's stunned gulp, he adds, "Now hurry up and eat your food. The sooner the two of you head out, the sooner Spidey can put his uniform in the wash."

"Oh, you're a laugh riot, my friend," I call after him as he heads out the back door. "Come Christmas time in the Avengers mansion, there's gonna be one sad little Wolverine around here, you hear me?" He puts up one of his fingers that let me know he did indeed hear me. And then he's gone.

"Don't know why I'm worried about the best fighter being gone. I mean, it's just one demon, right? Morlun's gone, and even if Bishop's there, he's still outnumbered. The address might not even pan out, so they'll probably come back in saying that it was a bust."

I didn't even realize that I was speaking out loud until Mikey replied, "Don't think so, bro. They left over two hours ago." I look up at him before glancing down at the address that Jarvis handed me. Even if they took precautions to not be seen, they weren't more than forty-five minutes away. If it were nothing, Tony would have checked in to let me know before I went off after them.

"Finish your food," I tell Mikey as I stand. He looks at me. Though his jovial exterior hasn't changed, he knows that something's up. Heck, maybe he's just pretending to be so happy because he's covering up his own nerves. Whatever the case, he doesn't question me and eats fast. As I head out of the kitchen, Jarvis asks me where I'm going. "I've got to talk to someone real quick," I answer. Alone in the corridor, I lean against the wall.

"Hey God? It's me again."

* * *

With Mikey on my back as I swing through the city, we manage to make it to our destination in half an hour.

"Whoa," Mikey breathes as I let him down on a tree bough. With no more skyscrapers or landmarks for me to sling across, it looks like we're going to have to make do with jumping the trees. "I totally need spider powers now. That _definitely_ beats running across rooftops." Looking around as we walk, he comments, "I didn't know New York had so much green in it. Other than in the sewers, I mean."

Glancing at the map I had printed off the Internet, I raise an eyebrow. "Funny," I murmur. I could feel Michelangelo looking at me and explain, "According to the map, I had thought that the address was right on the northern outskirts of Saxon Woods Park. Looking at it again, though, now that we're actually _in_ the park…." I look up, seeing the busy road that cut through to the distant north.

Following my gaze, Mikey says, "Well, it's a good thing that I always carry my shell cell with me." I look down at him. "Sure," he adds, "Donnie didn't pick up when I called before we left Stark Tower, but remember what Casey said: tracer. I can activate it on all four of them and make sure that the guys are at least in the same place, and we can go on from there."

As he began fiddling with the small communicator, I let out a quietly surprised sound. "Gotta admit, Mikey," I told him, "there's a whole lot more going on in your head than I give you credit for."

"Tell me about it," he mutters as his communicator starts letting out a series of random beeps. "Just because you gotta go through a couple of TV theme songs before you get to the good stuff, people think there's nothing worth listening to in my head. C'mon, Donnie's my brother. How dumb can _I_ be?"

I consider his point, amused that there was no bitterness to his tone. When the beeps from the communicator start occurring in unison, he breathes, "Got it." Narrowing his eyes at the display screen, he says, "Just as I thought; Donnie's shell cell is a couple of yards across from the others. Hopefully, that just means that he dropped it and is still with the guys. Since the others look grounded, I'm hoping that's the case."

The next thing I know, he's jumped from that tree to the next. "C'mon, slowpoke! Get 'a-webbing!" Not knowing what else to do, I quickly follow after him, trying my best to be as quiet as I can. Skyscrapers I can maneuver around; trees, I haven't had much experience with. Though, since it's the natural environment of the spider, it doesn't take too long for me to get used to the short web-zips.

Mikey lands on the ground, stopping suddenly behind a large bush. I crouch besides him, listening in. There's definitely a fight going on on the other side, and it sounds like it's pretty epic. A blast goes off just a couple of yards to our left, causing Mikey and I to press against the ground. Mikey's about to plunge ahead, but I pull him back and silently pull branches apart, peering through to the other side.

What I see disheartens me, to say the least. A living version of the illustrated demon is squaring off with Leonardo and Splinter, her halberd threatening to break Leo's swords in half with every parry. Donatello and Raph have their own hands full… with Iron Man.

"What the shell?" Michelangelo asks as Tony punches Raphael and Donatello away at the same time. His words attract Tony's attention, and he looks straight at us. Mikey jumps to his feet. "Hey! I thought you were one of the good guys!" My spider-sense going off, I tackle Mikey just as Iron Man sends a blast towards him.

"She has… corrupted my system," Tony explains in a strained voice from within the suit. I knew what was going on before he even brought it up. How many times has that stupid suit of his been overrun by some kind of virus or something? Time for better firewalls, my friend. I stand and look back at him. He's risen a few feet off the ground and launches himself at me. "Duck!" Tony screams.

I do him one better. I jump over him as he comes closer. "Get her!" I scream at Mikey as I attempt to web Tony to a nearby tree. I know it won't work against him, but I've got to try and slow him down without hurting him. Judging by the way Raphael just jumped to his feet with his sai in hand, I figure that the others don't quite remember/care that Tony's stuck in there.

Iron Man uses the unibeam in the center of his chest to blast through the webs, striking Raph as well. With a loud outcry, he flies backward, almost crashing into Donatello, who had just regained his footing. "Spider-Man," Donatello calls to me. "Keep Iron Man busy! I've got a plan!"

Dodging one of Iron Man's built-in lasers, I say, "Wait, you mean I had a _choice_? Then let me at the thing I _can_ maim!" From the sounds of it, though, the turtles aren't doing a bang-up job with the not-so-fair Juliet. No time to help them out now, though. Iron Man comes flying for me again, and the blasts he lets out on either side of me make it tough for me to dive away. I try to jump over him again, but he anticipates this and rises up to meet me. Grabbing me by the shoulders, he continues to fly until he slams me into a tree. I can feel the trunk cracking beneath me, and suddenly find myself _glad_ that there aren't any buildings around. I don't know how I would feel about being catapulted into solid concrete right now.

I hear three screams sound as one, and try to renew my struggle when I recognize them as Leonardo, Splinter, and Michelangelo. Iron Man's grip, though, is one of steel… for obvious reasons. No matter how hard I struggle, I can't break free.

"Ah, it's the little spider." I look past Tony to see that it's Juliet talking to me, her red eyes and red hair blinding in the sunlight. Leo, Splinter, and Mikey are individually bound behind her with some kind of ectoplasmic chains or something. Raphael's still on the ground recovering from Iron Man's direct hit with the unibeam, and Donatello's nowhere to be seen. I realize now that Iron Man has made no move other than to constrict me. "Hello, little spider. How does it feel to know that you have gotten your friends into danger?"

"This has nothing to do with him," Leonardo calls. "_We're_ the ones who defeated your husband. Let Spider-Man go!" Husband? The wedding invitations must have been adorable: you are cordially invited to the unholy union of Romero and Juliet. Never was there a story of more woe….

"Silence!" Juliet screeched. Judging by the grunt from Leo, his binds have grown tighter to discourage him from butting in. Turning back to me, she continues, "If only the little spider had allowed death to come when it called for him, this would have been simple. The turtles would have been destroyed long ago, and he would have been at rest soon after. But no… now he must suffer. As shall his beloved Anthony Stark, and his cherished wife, and his entire decrepit family."

"Okay," I bark out, "I don't know who you are, lady, but it's pretty clear you've got the wrong guy. Still, that doesn't mean that I'm not going to be glad to send you back to wherever you came from once I get the use of my arms back. Thanks for cutting the circulation, Tony. I can always count on a friend."

"Little spider… too much talk. Too many jests. I would pick my final words more carefully."With that, she used her halberd the way a magician would use a wand and aimed it towards me and Iron Man. Tony let out a scream as sparks began to fly from his armor. With a sharp pull of her halberd, he was thrown back, crashing on top of Raphael. Man, is _he_ ever going to be sore when he comes to.

"I hope you've got your final words written down, then," I say as I crack my knuckles. "Because you're going to have to say them _real_ soon." I run for her. She tries to use her halberd on me but I leap in the air. I normally have a problem hitting women, but after what she did to Tony, I feel a huge sense of satisfaction as my fist slams into her face from above.

She screams, striking at me blindly with her weapon. The sharpened bit misses me because of the close quarters, but the pole hits me in the side, forcing me into a roll across the ground. Getting over the blow to her face, she tries to use her halberd on me again, which I assume to have the magical properties that got the two turtles and their sensei in their current predicament. Webbing it, I wrench it out of her hand and send it sailing. It embeds itself into a nearby tree.

"Now that we're more or less even," I tell her, still ready for an attack, "how about you explain how you can possibly have a vendetta against someone as sweet as little ol' me? Let me guess; you read _The Daily Bugle_."

She throws her head back and laughs quietly. "Oh, you poor little spider. Caught up in a web that you cannot _begin_ to comprehend." I tell her to find some more original lines and to hurry up with the story. Tilting her head sideways, she actually obliges.

"My powers allow me the ability to animate dead beings. With you gone, I was going to use you in my revenge against the turtles, and grant my old friend Morlun enough sustenance to last him a hundred years. Yet somehow, you managed to cast off the shroud of death that came so very close, and you managed to destroy Morlun in the process. I could bring him back, but only as the etheric being you witnessed last night, for a totem eater is much more complicated than a mortal. Using too much of my mystical abilities would attract the attention of those sensitive to it, and so I enlisted the aid of Agent John Bishop. I knew he wanted the turtles gone, and with his men surveying the perimeter until the ritual was ready to begin, it seemed imminent that I would both be able to revive my companion _and_ have revenge on two sets of enemies, all in one night."

My spider-sense goes off again, and I duck just in time to avoid the halberd taking off my head as it flies into Juliet's hands. "Morlun was a fool," she hisses. "He should have done away with that O'Neil woman from the beginning, and Bishop was even more foolish to let her go. Bishop will have his punishment, and _you_, little spider, have one less worry. Morlun will never be back to plague this world. Die with the comfort of knowing _that_."

She slams the halberd into the ground, causing the earth to rupture open. As the ground begins to quake, I do subsequent backflips to get away from the crack as it speeds towards me. I end up landing against the trunk of a tree, but it splinters and cracks. I have no choice but to abandon my post and jump to the undisturbed ground.

"Peter?"

I freeze when someone calls my name. It isn't so much that someone said my real name in a group where only Tony knows it and would never speak it while I'm in uniform. It's something else altogether that makes my blood run cold. That voice. That familiar, gentle voice. Turning, I murmur, "U… Uncle Ben?"

There he is, standing just a couple of yards away from me. His baseball cap hides his blue eyes, which are looking at his surroundings, confused. What is this? Is she trying to make me go soft by placing one of my weaknesses right in front of me? Why do the demons always hit below the belt?

With an enraged cry, I go straight for Juliet. Turns out, this is what she wants. She races towards me, holding her halberd out like a lance. I jump over it, flipping and hoping to get her with a flyaway kick from the flip. Instead, she jams the blunt end of the halberd upwards, hitting me square in the back. As I fall, she grabs hold of my throat and presses me against the ground.

"Human emotions are so _predictable_," she snarls as she chokes me. "You are hardly any different than I, little spider. You put on a mask and masquerade as an outlaw because your loved one was taken from you by circumstances that _could_ have been in your control. I put on a face and masquerade as one of your kind for the very same reason. The difference is, I _know_ my true nature, and you, little spider, you d-"

"Mind if I cut in?" She whirls around at the unfamiliar voice, only to get another punch across the face. Her hand releases me for only a second, and another hand grabs me in its stead. Judging by the three digits on this hand, I think it's one of the turtles. I know better when I suddenly see a plume of smoke and feel nauseous as the scenery changes.

Sitting up, I see that I'm now right besides Leonardo, Splinter, and Mikey. Mikey's looking behind me, his eyes wide. "Eep! Blue skin, glowing eyes, a tail, and only three fingers on each hand? If it weren't for the fact that we've got a couple of those characteristics, I'd be soiling my shell right now."

I look back. Nightcrawler was just standing up, grinning down at me. "A pleasure to see you again, old friend," he tells me in his soft German accent. "However, I _do_ wish our meetings occurred under more favorable circumstances." Looking up and seeing Juliet storming towards us, he says, "I expect to be introduced to your friends after this threat is neutralized."

With that, he teleports just behind Juliet, reaching out and grabbing hold of her horns. She screams in anger as he says, "As for you, _frau d__ämon_, I suggest you learn yourself some manners." She tries to swing her weapon at him, but he manages to grab it with his tail and toss it aside in the same way I had done with my webbing. It's nice to have friends in the X-Men.

"Heads up!" I look up as Donatello runs towards me. I see that Iron Man's right behind him, and I'm about to interfere when Donatello grabs my arm and pulls me out of the way. Seeing Iron Man aim one of his laser blasters at Leonardo, I try to break away. "Easy, Spidey, it's okay. I've reprogrammed him."

"It sure doesn't _look_ like-" I stop when I see that the laser he shot is aimed towards Leo's bonds, and causes them to disintegrate. As Leo looks down at himself in surprise, Iron Man does the same for Splinter and Mikey.

"Tony's suit is techno-organic," Donatello explains. "Last night, Juliet managed to do something to corrupt his system, and while he was down I managed to purge the corruption, plus recalibrated his lasers to form an antithesis to Juliet's mystical restraints."

"In other words," Mikey says as he dusts himself off, "you pulled through. Good going, Donnie. Remind me to buy ya a comic book for this."

As the turtles and Splinter run to join the battle between Juliet and Nightcrawler, I look at Tony. "So… she 'corrupted your system,' huh? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Raising a fist, Tony heatedly replies that she _looked_ human, doggone it.

"Shake, rattle, and roll," I tell him as I join in the fray. It looks like Nightcrawler's been teleporting her around the area, trying to weaken her. I know that constant teleportation with someone else in tow doesn't exactly do wonders for his strength, so I'm glad to see Donatello jam the end of his staff into her stomach, causing her to double over.

Knowing that she'd better get the boy in blue off of her, she reaches up and grabs his tail, pulling it hard. He yelps as he lets go of her. She attempts to slam her foot down on his face, but he teleports out of there before the blow could fall. With a push of her arms, she sends the three turtles flying backwards. I swing around her, just missing the attack. "Okay, Bridezilla," I tell her as I kick her from behind. "That's two of my friends you hurt in the past five minutes. Each additional one makes your grave one foot deeper."

She stumbles, but manages to regain her footing as she spins around to look at me. "The grave will not be _mine_, little spider." I try to go for her again, but my body won't listen. I can't move. Somehow, she's managed to paralyze me. Jeez, what _else_ can this thing do?

"That's cuz you don't _deserve _a grave, sister." Juliet turns just in time to get Raphael's sai in her gut. Judging by her response time, it looks like Nightcrawler's efforts did indeed slow her down. Withdrawing his sai, he kicks her away, slamming her against a tree. "Didja think I was just gonna sleep the whole fight through?"

Once she's down, I'm able to move again. Joining up with Raphael, I realize that the others have come to confront the bleeding demon. Four turtles, a man made of iron, a human spider, and a teleporting demi-demon. Impressive. "Permit me," I hear a voice say from behind us.

We split up as Splinter approaches Juliet, her halberd in his hands. She widens her eyes at the sight of the weapon, and raises her hand. The rest of us fall to the ground, as though an electrical current had passed through the air. Splinter remains unphased. The halberd must be protecting him from mystical attacks, and it looks like Juliet's physical attacks aren't all they could be.

"Vengeance makes us do most regrettable things, Miss Savanti," Splinter tells her. "So I can understand your anger over the loss of your husband. However, you must then understand my anger over the danger you put my sons, friends, and allies through." With a quick, sudden swipe of the halberd, Juliet's horned head rolls along the ground.

Her body seems to dry up and slowly crumbles. Splinter looks down as the weapon in his hands deteriorates before disappearing. Turning back to face us, Splinter clears his throat and proclaims, "'If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.' So says Machiavelli, and I believe it to hold true for rats as well."

I watch as the turtles get to their feet and gather around their sensei, patting him on the back and making a proud ruckus out of him. It's all I can do just to blink up at him in surprise. Wow. And here I thought he was just a teacher with excess body hair.

"I am afraid I did not do much," Nightcrawler confesses as he makes it to his feet, "but for what it is worth, I am glad that no one appears to be gravely injured."

"Thank you," Leonardo says, stepping in with a small bow. "It seems that the more time we spend with Spider-Man, the more colorful his friends become."

"Yeah," Michelangelo cracks. "Literally." Donatello whacks him in the back of the head with his staff as Leonardo begins introducing everyone.

"I am Nightcrawler," comes the reply, "a member of the X-Men. Wolverine has gone on a little excursion, and requested that someone come by and make sure that everyone makes it out alive. Since the X-Mansion is nearby, and everyone is otherwise occupied, I took it upon myself. I was mostly hoping to 'accidentally' give Spider-Man a good thrashing, but decided against it when I realized you were dealing with a Savanti demon."

"Wait," Raphael says, "you mean you _know_ the Savantis? Are they like some kinda big-time celebrities in the demon world?"

"In a way," Nightcrawler responds after some hesitation. "I am something of an occult specialist, and I have heard of the Savanti clan numerous times throughout my travels. Though I hate to be the bearer of bad news, the legends I have heard concerning their strength and ambition makes me worried that this will not be the last time you have dealings with her. Though I do not know why she would focus upon the group of you so intently, her clan is known for their utter ruthlessness. Once she has her eye on you-"

"Let me guess," I say, exasperated. "She won't stop until she's completely eradicated you. Man, why won't these guys just take up crocheting or marathon solitaire or some other hobby that'll keep them out of trouble?" With a sigh, I remark, "I can't wait for Wolverine to get back from that field trip with the X-kids."

"Pardon?" Nightcrawler asks.

"Wolvie said he was goin' on that trip around the city with some students," Mikey explains. "Said that was why he couldn't come with us. Seemed kinda like a cheap cop-out, but _you_ try telling him that when some radioactive exposure has made him all itchy and cranky."

As Raphael and Donatello laugh at Mikey's remark, I look at Nightcrawler's face. His shining yellow eyes are looking down in contemplation. "There's no trip," I ask, "is there?"

The boys stop laughing. "No," Nightcrawler responds. "I spoke to him directly on the phone. He told me that he had his own business elsewhere, and wanted to make sure that you did not get in over your heads. His story of a field trip is merely an alibi."

There's silence as we all consider this. "Do you suppose he is in danger?" Splinter finally asks. I reply that I don't know. It's not weird for Logan to go out and fight his own demons (both literally and figuratively), but he doesn't usually go through the trouble of making up an excuse. Especially not one that could be easily found out. From what Nightcrawler and I know of Logan psychology, it's as though he's saying that he didn't want Mikey and I to know the truth… at least, not at that moment. It could simply be that he didn't want to distract us from the Savanti demon, but then again… it could not. Stupid Logan and his stupid enigmas.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm a suspicious kind of turtle," Donatello says after I tell them all of this. "During our talk this morning, I slipped another turtle tracer on him, just in case the two of you decided to go and get yourselves into trouble again. Who's game for some Wolverine hunting?"

We decide that Splinter and Tony would go back to the Avengers mansion. That way, Tony could fix the kinks in his suit and Splinter could call April and let her, Casey, and MJ know the plan. Nightcrawler is still revved up after his brief experience with Juliet, and with all of the turtles feeling decently healthy, none of them were willing to split up. And since Logan and I are both Avengers, I figure it's about time I teach _him_ a little bit about teamwork.

"Right," I say after all this is agreed upon. "Let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** There is a brief reference to the Ninja Tribunal "Lost Season" in this chapter. I've tried to work things in such a way as to limit any major spoilers. If I did not succeed, then I greatly apologize. The "no sue/no kill" request still applies.

Other than that, have fun reading. There shall be one more chapter after this one!

* * *

"This is the place." 

I was surprised when Donatello's tracer took us underground and through the sewers. I couldn't keep track of where we were heading, but the turtles seem convinced that we're probably somewhere upstate. We all stop and look at the underground structure that awaits us.

It's like some weird subterranean fortress. Steel-plated automated door, with heavy-duty walls to match. If I weren't about to face potential danger, I'd be impressed. _Easy, Spidey,_ I tell myself as I walk towards the door. _It's wholly possible that this is just one of Logan's many side projects. Maybe he's secretly working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and wants to see if he can find out anything about this Bishop guy._ When I think about Bishop, I know that he has something to do with this. Call it a hunch.

Speaking of hunches, I have a doozy of one when I touch the door to the impenetrable fortress. My spider-sense completely flares up, being enough to physically drive me away from the door. I would have fallen on my face if Raphael hadn't caught me. "Spidey!" Raph cries out. "What is it? What's with the screaming?"

Had I been screaming? I realize that I was when I gasp out for breath. "Ugh," I murmur. "Don't go in there." The guys all ask me what's going on, but I just shake my head. "I can't see. All I know is that my spider-sense is telling me to stay the heck away from this door."

"If you cannot see," I hear Nightcrawler tell me, "then I will have to be your eyes." Before I can stop him, there's his trademark _bamf_ sound and puff of smoke. By the time I right myself, he's gone. I call out his name, but one of the turtles puts his hand over my mouth.

"If it's that bad," Leonardo says, "then I don't recommend drawing anyone's attention until we know what it is." I pull myself away from him, but I can't bring myself to touch that door. There's something back there, and every second that passes with Nightcrawler inside fills me with a sense of dread.

We all pull back as the door begins to whir open. I hear the turtles draw their weapons, prepared for anything. Nightcrawler pokes his head out of the widening gap, flashing a small grin. "Despite your doubts, everything _appears_ to be clear. No sign of Wolverine, nor of anyone else." Cautiously, the turtles begin to edge their way inside. Nightcrawler turns his glowing eyes to me. "Spider-Man," he tells me quietly, "if you still feel an overwhelming sense of danger, we can retreat and seek out the help of the other X-Men. I, for one, see nothing and think we should-"

"Look out!" I look up as Leonardo pulls Nightcrawler out of the way. The door is slamming back down, and fast. I've got approximately a fraction of a nanosecond to decide whether to hang back and call for reinforcements or allow myself to be locked in an underground secret chamber. I do what any good, stupid superhero does.

I duck and roll, just making it inside the chamber as the door slams shut. Standing, I look around the room. My spider-sense is seriously off the wall. I've never been affected by it this badly. Whatever's here, it's _bad_.

But there's nothing here. The turtles and Nightcrawler split up, searching the room. There are filing cabinets, a projector, a projector screen, a whiteboard, various tables and chairs… it looks like your basic conference room. Donatello walks across the room, then stops. He looks down at the circular table he's passing by, noticing something about the rug beneath it. Using his staff, he pokes at the rug. It bends slightly inwards. "Hey guys," he calls. "I think I've found something."

His brothers help him to lift the table, and Nightcrawler pulls the rug out of the way. Beneath is a round door, made of the same stuff that the outer door is made out of. Stepping up, Raphael grabs hold of the handle and pulls with all of his strength. With a rusty creak, it opens.

"So, uh," Michelangelo starts, "are we supposed to go down the rabbit hole?" I notice that the inside of the door has no handle, meaning that one is _not_ meant to climb out of it, unless through another exit. Before I can bring this up, Leonardo has already leapt into the hole. Oy. Ninjas. Now I know what Logan's always complaining about. Raphael follows, then Donatello. Michelangelo and Nightcrawler look at one another, then me. "Heh," Mikey offers weakly, gesturing to the passageway, "humans first."

Nightcrawler looks like he's about to intercede on my part, but I don't give him the chance. Without a word, I dash towards the passageway and leap into it. Even as I do so, I can feel my spider-sense like an audible hum in the back of my brain.

When I see the end coming up, I get ready. Instead of landing on the ground, I stick to the ceiling and crawl along there, looking up (or, as it were, down) at the turtles. As Mikey and Nightcrawler make their way down, I ask, "You getting any readings, Donatello?"

Donatello's looking at his tracking device, hitting it gently with the back of his hand. "Nothing," he says forlornly. "Either the signal doesn't travel down here, or there's something interfering with it. I wouldn't be all that surprised, given all of this equipment." I look around and notice that we're in a small laboratory. There's a door to my left that seems to lead into a bigger lab, and then another.

"Good Lord," Nightcrawler breathes with a shudder. "It's just like the Weapon X compound in Alkali Lake." The turtles ask what he means, and he explains, "It's the complex in Canada that Wolverine escaped from after they ran numerous inhumane experiments on him. They're the ones that forcibly implanted his adamantium skeleton and programmed him to be an assassin. They've used several other mutants in similar tests."

The boys say nothing, obviously distressed by the thought of people performing such cruel experiments on mutants. "Well," Raphael brings up, heading for the door, "if this place is at all related to this 'Weapon X,' I say we find Wolverine and make sure that this place don't get the chance to hurt anymore mutants." His sai in hand, he darkly adds, "_Ever_."

Before anyone can stop him, he's run off to the next room. His brothers and Nightcrawler quickly follow after him, knowing better than to split up. Me? My spider-sense is trying to drill a hole through my skull. It gets so bad that I can't even retain my grip on the ceiling. Dropping down to my feet, I shake my head. _Something's wrong_, I tell myself as I stumble after the others. _This… this can't be my spider-sense! This has to be something else completely!_

"Something is wrong." I look up as I hear Nightcrawler echo my previous thoughts. "There is something here," he tells the turtles as I step into the largest lab. "There is something in this room." The turtles look around. There's a small pedestal on a table at the end of the room, displaying a large jewel of sorts. It doesn't quite look like a diamond, but judging by the equipment on the table nearby and the laser that seems to be aimed at it, it was being used in some kind of experiment.

"There's nothing," Donatello concludes. "We're alone in the room."

"We may be the only ones in this room," Nightcrawler admits, "but we are not _alone_." His golden eyes shining as he searches the room, he begins backing up. "I maintain my position. There is something _in_ this room. In the very room itself. Am I the only one who can feel it?"

"No," I finally answer, still staggering. "Whatever it is, it's messing with my spider-senses. It… oh." Suddenly feeling nauseous, I sink to my knees. I hear the turtles call my name, alarmed, but Nightcrawler gets to me first.

"You four," he commands the turtles, "remain here and stay prepared for anything. I will take Spider-Man back up to the surface. Perhaps the fresh air will clear his mind." I'm about to argue when I see the bright puff of smoke appear before me again. Man, he's _got_ to stop doing that. Second-hand smoke can be fatal.

I'm about to tell him so when I look around. "Uh, Bamf Boy?" I reach a hand out, only to feel something akin to glass directly in front of me. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." I look out and get a case of the chills. We're still in the laboratory. Only the turtles' shells are now to us as they look at where we were. Judging by my point of view and the facets that distort my vision, I realize that we somehow managed to teleport inside the gem that I had seen earlier.

"This is not possible!" Nightcrawler pushes against the wall, but it doesn't even feel like he manages to jostle the crystal. He looks around, trying not to panic, before he tells me, "I… I am afraid that I… I cannot…."

"We're stuck here?" I cry out. Looking at the turtles, I see that Leonardo has raised a hand to his brothers, signaling them to be quiet. "Hey! Hey Leo! Mikey!" Leonardo turns around, his eyes scanning the room as I continue to call out to them. "Guys, over here! In the crystal!" Seeing all the turtles turn to look at me, I'm grateful that they can at least hear me.

"Whoa," Michelangelo utters as he spots us. Walking over to us, he stoops down and peers down at us. "Call me crazy, Nightcrawler, but that doesn't look like the surface to me."

"Rather observant of you, Michelangelo," Nightcrawler dryly replies as the others approach us. "I do not understand what has happened. Instead of taking us to the surface, I felt myself being pulled in here. Now, I fear that I cannot get us out."

"A case 'a the incredible shrinking superheroes," Raphael remarks, "who get sucked into a magic jewel. Sounds like prime comic book material, if you ask me."

"Yes. And an unexpected surprise, I might add."

The turtles whirl around at the sound of the startling voice. Bishop. Oh man, I _hate_ it when I'm right. He steps into the room as the door slams shut behind him, an air of finality surrounding the closing of the entry. He seems to be wearing some kind of high-tech black and red spacesuit, and it looks like wrist-mounted lasers will be the _least_ of our worries this time around. Leaning in besides me, Nightcrawler asks, "Should I be worried?"

"Uh-huh."

"Drat."

"Bishop!" Leonardo calls out bitterly. "First you're going to get our friends out of there, and then you're going to tell us where Wolverine is."

"And then," Raphael adds, "you're gonna hold real still while I pay you back for tryin' to feed me to a vampire."

"Demons and vampires," Nightcrawler murmurs. "I see you have been keeping yourself busy, my friend. And to think, I have not been invited into the fun until now."

I don't take my eyes off of Bishop. Though my size and vantage point makes it difficult for me to tell, it doesn't look like Bishop's looking anywhere except for straight at me. This doesn't bode well. Not at all. As he walks steadily towards us, I back away from the edge of the crystal, pulling Nightcrawler back with me. No way am I going to get shocked by his booby traps again.

"Fascinating, I must admit," Bishop says. Though the turtles stand in his way with their weapons at the ready, he pushes past them and continues towards us. Raphael looks like he's about to attack, but Leonardo stops him. "It seems that Mr. Wagner here has a closer connection to the Savantis than he realized."

Nightcrawler pulls away from me, shocked that this stranger knew his real name. "I am sorry," he tells Bishop, "but have we met? And if so, please remind me why I did not take pains to prevent us from meeting ever again."

With an almost-inaudible chuckle, Bishop replies, "No, we haven't met, Kurt. If we have, you wouldn't be working as an instructor at Professor Xavier's so-called 'Institute for the Gifted.'" He's clearly showing off his knowledge in the hopes of flustering Nightcrawler. It seems to be working.

Turning away from us, Bishop turns to the turtles as he explains, "This, my uninvited guests, is the Savanti Crystal. My men discovered that it possesses the ability to communicate with one of the many hell dimensions and create-"

"Hell_ish_ dimensions," Nightcrawler corrects. "There is only one Hell and, judging by your involvement in these laboratories, I do hope you enjoy humidity."

Bishop spared Nightcrawler a glance over his shoulder. "Rather self-righteous, for a son of a demon and a temptress." Nightcrawler returns this remark with a glower. Being a devout Catholic, he's always been rather sensitive about his family's background.

"As I was saying," Bishop continues, duly ignoring Nightcrawler and I, "this crystal allows the eldest member of the Savanti clan to create a physical manifestation in this plane, while controlling it from his own dimension. This manifestation appeared soon enough, asking that I help her return her friend Morlun back to his former state. In return, it would guarantee the demise of mutual enemies."

He peers back at us once again, and I can see the ghost of a smirk as he says, "Though I knew that Mr. Wagner's teleportation took him across a different dimensional landscape, I would have never realized that an attempt to use his powers would entrap him inside the crystal. How fortuitous that he took Spider-Man along for the ride." Turning back to the turtles as he raises his right arm, he finishes, "This makes things _far_ more simple."

I can't see what he does, but some kind of whirring sound comes from his arm, and the turtles scatter to avoid a rather large blast. "Simple, huh?" Raphael asks as he dives for Bishop. "The only simple thing I see around here is _you_!" He swipes at him with his sai, but Bishop ducks and punts Raph in the stomach. As Raphael doubles over, Bishop slams his elbow down on the back of his neck.

Michelangelo comes at him next. I wonder briefly why people never just overpower their enemy instead of attempting to go at them one-by-one. Maybe good guys have a little too much honor for their own good. At any rate, Bishop sees him coming and shoots at him. It looks like Mikey anticipates this and jumps over him, landing on the table upon which the crystal is set. Nightcrawler and I feel the table rumble, and I call out to Mikey, "Hey, watch where you're going! Just because I'm a spider doesn't mean I'm used to this size or anything!"

I'm surprised when Mikey chooses to ignore me and crouches. Peering around him, I see that he has pressed the chains of his nunchucks against Bishop's throat, limiting his movements. Leonardo and Donatello have approached, their weapons drawn. "We're not playing around, Bishop," Leonardo says, narrowing his eyes. "We came here for Wolverine. Tell us where he is, and this will be the quickest encounter we ever have with one another."

"I'm willing to make that latter part come true," Bishop says. He suddenly manages to buck Mikey off of him, sending him crashing right into Leonardo. Knowing he has to act fast, Donatello quickly strikes Bishop with his staff: once in the stomach and once in the face. Though his glasses become lopsided, Bishop acts like he's hardly felt anything and grabs Donatello's weapon. With a pull, he manages to drag the turtle directly into his fist.

Not giving Bishop time to recover, Raphael jumps up and jabs the handle of one of his sai hard into Bishop's abdomen. At the same moment, he brings his other hand up, probably meaning to take off Bishop's head. Without missing a beat, Bishop grabs Raphael's approaching hand and pushes him away, slamming him back onto another table. If this Bishop guy _is_ an android, then he's the fastest machine I've ever seen in my life.

"You _do_ realize," Leonardo starts as he regains his footing, "that if something happens to Wolverine, the Avengers won't just let that go. And once they get wind of this, your little top-secret organization stands the risk of losing its secrecy." He dodges an actual _missile_ from the gadget on Bishop's wrist. Holy cow. A missile. It's Iron Man without a visible shred of iron.

"Do you think Anthony Stark would do such a thing?" Bishop asks, fending off Michelangelo even as he speaks to Leonardo. "Would he really put Jessica Drew in such danger? Or Carol Danvers? Or even that _insipid_ Peter Parker?"

Nightcrawler gapes at me as Bishop says my name. My mouth hangs open in stunned anger. Government agency, huh? I can't wait until the turtles mop the floor with him, get me out of here, and tell me every last detail about his crummy organization. Every newspaper in New York City is going to have an in-depth story on it, dropping every name I can get my hands on. "Oh, it's going to be _so_ much fun to rip you a new one," I mutter.

As Donatello attacks Bishop again with renewed energy, I find that I'd give anything to possess telekinesis. It probably wouldn't work while I'm trapped in this jar, but the thought of Donatello's staff cracking Bishop's face open with the power of my mind comforts me for the time being. When Leonardo's attack influences Bishop to throw Donatello towards his brother, I bang my fist against the crystal in frustration.

I get distracted when I feel a sudden breeze. Turning around, Nightcrawler and I look at the center of the crystal. There appears to be some kind of disturbance, as small white flares and harsh winds have permeated the inside of the gem. "Uh," I murmur, "did he say something about this crystal being used as a communicator between our world and… hell?"

"Hell…_ish_," comes Nightcrawler's reply as he grabs my arm. Judging by the bolts of nausea, I figure that he's still trying a last-ditch effort to teleport us out of there. I can stick to walls and shoot webs; why can't I have any _useful_ powers? I turn around. What do I expect to do? Bang against the crystal and scream for Bishop to let me out of here? Fat chance.

Luckily, I don't have to worry about what to say. The crystal's disturbance has affected the entire room, and I feel my spider-sense exploding once again. The turtles _and_ Bishop have ceased fighting, and are currently looking around the room in confusion. Bishop doesn't strike me as the type to pull an innocent act, so I'm led to believe that this is beyond even _his_ control.

"How kind, Agent Bishop," says a voice that seems to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. I shudder when I realize that it's the Savanti demon that Splinter had killed earlier. Or rather, whose manifestation he had destroyed earlier. "You fail me in my efforts to revive the totem eater, but you have seen to it that our alliance is not a _complete_ loss."

"Whoa," Mikey says, looking around for the source of the voice as the wind picks up both within the crystal and on the outside. "Guys, how did we get stuck in a _Poltergeist_ sequel?"

"Why won't these stupid bad guys just _stay_ dead?" Raphael bellows angrily. It's gotten so chaotic that I can feel the crystal trembling, and the guys have to cover their faces from the flying papers and evade chairs as they begin circling in the center of the room.

"Savanti!" Bishop calls out. "What's the meaning of this? I thought our dealings were over. Why are you destroying my lab?"

"You little fool," hisses the voice. "Did you honestly believe that I would be satisfied with our so-called 'dealings' when nothing has come from them? Up until now, you have proven to be little more than a wasted effort, an embarrassment even for _your_ kind. But you have managed to redeem yourself somewhat. With the turtles, the spider, the wolverine, and the human totems, I will finally have the power to escape from the confines of my world and truly enter yours. Morlun wasted his chance; it is now _my_ turn."

"Human totem?" Donatello asks, confused. "But… Nightcrawler's not a human. And Spider-Man is…." He widens his eyes and looks at Bishop as he understands what's going on.

"You're betraying me?" Bishop queries, though he doesn't sound truly surprised. "At least, you're making a decent attempt. The wolverine is mine, Savanti. As for your attempts to use me as a totem, I'm afraid you won't have the chance." With that, he quickly turns and aims his laser straight for the crystal.

"Uh-oh," I gulp. "This can't be happening. I'm way too dashing to die like this." Even as Nightcrawler and I grab at each other in a rather childish way, I find that I'm relieved that Donatello has such a long-reaching weapon. With a lunge, he pushes Bishop's arm out of the way, giving Nightcrawler and I only a few inches of clearance.

"Not happening, Bishop," Donatello says resolutely as he jumps in front of Bishop's way. He has to raise his voice because the air current has gotten even stronger. "You want to destroy that crystal, you get Spider-Man and Nightcrawler out of there first!"

"Idiot!" Bishop cries out as he tries to strike Donatello away. Donatello parries him with his staff as Bishop continues, "I don't even know how they got _in_ there in the first place! If we don't destroy that crystal, then we _all_ die."

"Well," Raphael remarks as he steps in besides his brother, "that's what you get when you make a deal with the Devil."

"Demon," Nightcrawler cries exasperatedly. "She is a demon, _not_ the Devil! There is a _very_ large difference between-"

Putting my hand over Nightcrawler's mouth, I tell him, "You know, and they say that _I_ talk too much." I look up as a skirmish breaks out between the man and the four turtles. Every time he gains the slightest advantage, I flinch, thinking that this might just be the end. However, the turtles are fighting more fiercely than ever, determined to keep Bishop from snuffing out two lives with one shot.

"You know," Raphael realizes after twirling his sai for a moment, "I think I just _got_ somethin'. If she needs ya for the human totem, she can't really do nothin' to the rest 'a us if you ain't got no life force to give her, can she?"

Brutally slamming Michelangelo into the ground, Bishop narrows his eyes at Raphael. "You wouldn't," he challenges him. "You don't have it in you to kill a human being."

"Heh," Raphael grins, "lucky for me that I don't really consider you a human being." Leonardo is forced to jump out of the way as Raphael dives for Bishop, slashing with his sai. Though Bishop is still beyond superhumanly fast, Raphael actually gives him a run for his money. He's out for blood this time.

"Raph, no!"

Leonardo tries to stop him, but Donatello gets in his way. Leonardo looks at him with surprise as Donatello sternly tells him, "Leo, it's time to end this. Mikey's hardly moving. _Again._" I look to the floor. He's right. Mikey looks like he's having trouble getting on all fours as he spits out a wad of blood. "Sorry Leo. Bishop's hurt us one time too often. And he's _not_ taking Spidey and a couple of innocent mutants along for the ride."

As Donatello turns away, Leonardo asks him what he's expected to do. I realize that Donatello's heading for the crystal. "Distract Bishop," Donatello tells him. "Keep him away from Mikey, and keep him away from the crystal. At this point, I don't care _what_ that entails." I look back at Leonardo. He hardly gives it a second's deliberation before going to help Mikey. Seeing him pull his brother towards the wall, I realize that Leonardo's one heck of a leader; so few of them know when to follow.

"Spider-Man," Donatello tells me as he picks up the crystal. Nighcrawler and I have a little trouble keeping our balance, given Donatello's rush. "You implied that you're a man of science. Are genetics your only expertise, or have you got some geospheric knowledge as well?"

"Donatello," I yell at him over the rising wind, "no time for techno-babble, pal. Just tell me exactly what you need me to do." I peer behind me as a bright light stems from the center of the gem. "And do it fast, or Nightcrawler and I are the first to end up on the menu."

"Webs," Donatello says simply. "Make them. Lots of them. All around the perimeter of the crystal. And hurry." I can tell he sets the crystal down somewhere else, but I don't pay any attention to it. I quickly begin carrying out his orders.

A dismal cry escapes my lips when I see that the webbing doesn't take. The wind is far too strong. "Here," Nightcrawler offers urgently. I watch him deftly climb along the facets of the crystal, pressing my fallen web into the corners. I continue to shoot them out and, with his help, they manage to stay up long enough for me to start cocooning. Nightcrawler jumps down, shielding his eyes as the outside world is slowly blocked from view and the crystal's inner light glows bright.

"No!" Juliet's voice is inside the crystal now, and it hurts my ears. I try to ignore it as I keep on webbing. "Little spider, it will not be this simple. Already your wolverine has succumbed to his fate; best to let nature run its course."

"Wolverine and succumb, used together in the same sentence?" Nightcrawler asks defiantly. "Oh yes, I believe that. And I also believe in a rabbit who gives out chocolate eggs on Easter."

There's only one patch left to cover, and I look out through it even as my webbing drapes over it. Raphael and Leonardo are still fighting hard against Bishop. Leonardo seems to be holding back, but Raphael is beyond that now. I wonder for a moment what's become of Michelangelo just before the outside world disappears from view.

Since I have no idea what to expect, I just keep webbing. It gets my mind off of the worrying. I've never been one to angst over Wolverine, but if she was telling the truth, I might just need something to take my rage out on after I get out of here. I sure hope the turtles leave a little bit of Bishop for me.

"It can't be…" I hear Nightcrawler murmur quietly behind me. I peer back from my webbing and see that he's slowly approaching the center of the crystal. As he reaches out for it, he says mostly to himself, "An illusion, most definitely. Some sort of trickery."

"Nightcrawler!" I yell at him. "Don't walk towards the light! I'd think that'd be simple logic!" I stop my webbing and turn to him as his hand disappears into the bright orb, as though moving of its own accord. "Don't you dare, Elf!" I scream as I lunge for him. I manage to put my arms around him, but I can't pull him away. I can't see his arm now, and I'm willing to bet that something's in there pulling at him. "Let him _go_!" I cry out at whatever's got him.

Suddenly, it feels really warm in here. Looking around, I see that the webs seem to be blocking a bright red glow. _Oh man,_ I think, releasing one arm from around Nightcrawler and hastily adding to the webs. _I _really_ hope that's Donatello at work. _

As the white orb within the crystal goes brighter, I begin to doubt it. I hear Nightcrawler crying out, and I don't know if it's in pain or what. With a new resolve, I suddenly manage to wrench him out of the way, falling with him. It seems almost as though the orb is trying to suck us in. Seeing that Nightcrawler's dazed, I keep one arm around him as I reach for the webbing. I manage to get a grip just in time; the interior of the crystal has turned into some kind of vacuum.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Think of MJ. If I'm really about to become someone's food source, then the only thing I can think about is that I want the last thing I envision to be her. That's how it was the first time I died; that's how it's going to be during all subsequent deaths.

The heat becomes unbearable, and I can feel the crystal's exterior trembling. It drives me nuts that I can't see what's out there. The web has even managed to muffle the sound… or is that just because of the ruckus in here? "Spider-Man," I hear Nightcrawler mutter as he clings to me, "what… what is…?"

"Don't know, Blue Boy," I tell him, grateful that I've also got some superhuman strength to keep us from being spirited away, "but whatever it is, some of that praying business would work really well right about now." _Hey God?_ I call inside my head. _It's_-

Something cracks under my hand, and I feel myself falling. Great. More nausea. Because _that's _what the doctor ordered. I fall for a while, taking Nightcrawler with me. When I finally hit the floor, the suction isn't so bad, so I let him go and put a hand to my head. Looking up, I slowly open my eyes.

Donatello is removing a pair of goggles and crouching in front of me. "Are the two of you okay?" I look around. We're normal-sized now. Looking back, I see that the crystal has shattered. Donatello somehow managed to break through the crystal enough to allow for our escape, using the web as padding.

"Ugh," I cough out, "not the most _pleasant_ rescue I've ever experienced, but it got the job done." Looking around the room, I see that the turtles are still fighting with Bishop, and Mikey is leading a shirtless and bloody Logan to the safety of a corner. "Wolverine. What the… where'd _he_ come from?"

"That question can be answered later," Donatello tells me, helping Nightcrawler and me to our feet. "What I'm more concerned about is why the special effects haven't died down, even though the crystal's been destroyed."

Looking around, I realize that he's right. Though being my regular size has kept me from feeling the pull of the orb, my spider-sense is still off the wall and it still looks like there's a hurricane in the center of the room. "I believe I can answer your question," Nightcrawler says, his bad arm around his stomach. "The pure Savanti demon does not need the benefit of a formal ritual to sap the strength of a totem. Just their presence is enough."

"You mean," I ask, "just by being here, we've helped her master plan?"

"Yes," he replies. "During all of this time, she has been absorbing our life force. This could be what has been setting off your spider-senses, and why I currently feel…." He lets himself sink to the floor to exhibit how he's feeling. Alarmed, Donatello props him up. "Even your brothers, Donatello, look at them. They are not as quick as they were when fighting against the Savanti manifestation."

Donatello and I look up. He's right. Even Bishop's movements are slowing down. It looks like his element changed from water to solid earth in a matter of minutes. Leonardo and Raphael are still fighting him, but they can tell that something's wrong. I know that if Raph was feeling in top shape, Bishop wouldn't be alive right now.

"There is a benefit to this, however," Nightcrawler continues as he difficultly makes his way to his feet. "Judging by my teleportation error, the gateway between dimensions has been temporarily locked. With the crystal broken, Savanti's essence is now trapped within this room, and she is counting on being able to use our totemic energies to materialize into a physical being."

My head still buzzing, I ask _how_ that's a good thing. Looking at me even as it seems that he's growing weaker, Nightcrawler replies, "We can manifest our totems in such a way as to attack her on the spiritual level." With a groan, he clenches up. "At least, _you_ can. I appear to be injured, and even so, I doubt that I possess a totem at all, which is possibly why I am the weakest of all of you at the moment."

I help Donatello with Nightcrawler, and a glance at him tells me that he's quickly processing something. "What've you got, Donnie?" He looks at me as I drape Nightcrawler's arm over my shoulder, standing with him. "And limit the techno-babble. We had enough mystic-babble to last us a bit." Nightcrawler smiles up at me weakly.

"Nightcrawler's fading fast," Donatello answers as he gets up and looks at Logan. "And Wolverine limped in here like a 3,000-year-old mummy. And when you come right down to it, they're _human_. They've got a gene that makes them different from the others, but they're essentially _human_. Spidey… you're not feeling too well either, and you're a human, too. Bishop…." He stops as he looks at Bishop, who was now leaning against a table and shaking his head. Leo and Raph were looking at him warily. "Bishop's the product of some amazing alien technology, but whatever he may be, he's _also_ human. That's why you're so drained. However strong your totems may be, they're still within bodies that are essentially human."

"And _ours_ aren't." I look up to see that Michelangelo had joined in the conversation. Though he looks pretty bruised up, he doesn't seem any less determined than any of his other brothers. "And our so-called 'totems' are strong. Wicked strong. And so are our bodies. _That's_ why Juliet's having a harder time draining us than she is any of you."

"Guys," Raphael calls over the wind, "are ya havin' a deep 'n movin' discussion that'll actually _help_ us out here? Bishop's gettin' a little too boring to fight, but somethin' tells me we ain't outta the woods yet."

Mikey and Donatello exchange glances, then Donatello quickly looks to me. "Spider-Man, take Nightcrawler over to Wolverine and sit there, the three of you."

"Bishop," Mikey calls. "follow Spidey and stay put. Leo, help him if he needs it." Bishop looks like he's about to argue, but Leonardo grabs his forearm and yanks him into a standing position. I lead Nightcrawler to the side as Donatello instructed while Leonardo drags Bishop over.

"This is absurd!" Bishop screams as he's thrown to sit besides me. "I'm not going to just sit in the sidelines as some demoness attempts to steal my soul!"

"First of all," I tell him as Leo and his brothers meet together, "it's just demon. No 'ess' suffix is necessary, since this is the age of political correctness. Just like how an 'actor' can be either a male or female. Secondly, if it were our 'souls' she was trying to steal, she'd have no use for you. Doesn't look like there's anything in there, Tin Man." He glares at me but says nothing, leaving me to believe that he actually feels worse than I had thought.

Turning my attention back to the turtles, I try to figure out what they're doing. There's another white, flaring orb in the center of the room, slowly growing in size and intensity. The turtles have formed a circle around it, staring it down resolutely. So they're not human and they have strong totems. Fine. Does that make them think that they can face down whatever's waiting to munch on their life force?

"Join hands!" Leonardo tells the others as he reaches for Michelangelo and Raphael. "We don't have the medallions, so we need whatever we can get to make this work." I watch as the four brothers grab one another's hands, then close their eyes in concentration. Oh, don't tell me. They're not going to try and manifest their totems, are they? You _can't_ physically manifest your totems in this realm; you need to be in the astral plane, and that's no stroll in the park.

Still, I can't do anything else but watch as the white light gets closer and closer to them, threatening to engulf them. Whatever it had done to Nightcrawler's arm, I know it isn't planning on going that easy on the turtles. _C'mon guys,_ I challenge. _Surprise me. Go ahead and surprise the ever-loving heck out of me._

As the turtles' bodies are suddenly streaked with multicolored lights, they proceed to take up my challenge.

Leonardo's closest to my line of vision, and I watch as a dull blue light seems to form a linear pattern around his body. He seems to be deep in concentration, only to be annoyed when Michelangelo breaks the strained silence. "Not… working. Need the… medallions."

"Quiet," Leonardo orders. "Just keep focusing! They're _our_ avatars. We can do this!" Michelangelo obeys, and the four of them fall into a deep silence even as the chaos around the lab grows in intensity.

"Foolish little turtles," I hear Juliet taunt. "Do you believe yourselves strong enough to fight against my will? Even the little spider has resigned himself to being nothing more than a spectator." Not wanting to distract the turtles, I resist the urge to punch Bishop in the face, just for the sake of taking my anger out on _some_one.

The turtles don't respond, though. Not even Raphael. They just continue to focus their energy inwards. Slowly, the individual lights surrounding them (each matching the colors of their respective eye masks, I notice) grow bright and seem to pulsate off of them. "What?" It takes a moment before I realize that the horrified outcry belongs to Juliet. "No… no, this isn't possible!"

Above Leonardo's head, I see a transparent figure eventually gaining form. His turtle totem? No… that's way too big to be a turtle. A turtle's tail isn't that long. And his body isn't so thin. I blink when I realize what the partially-reptilian ancestor that has manifested itself as Leonardo's totem… or his "avatar"... is. A dragon. An honest-to-goodness winged dragon.

"_Mein Gott_!" Nightcrawler breathes besides me.

_All_ of the turtles have manifested this ethereal dragon just above their heads. The white orb in the center of them seems to retreat. "No!" Juliet screams. "Not… possible!" I see a red dragon—Raphael's—dive into the light, disappearing. His brothers follow suit. The four turtles seem to tense up, the luminosity coming off of them strong enough to be blinding. I can't take my eyes away, though. What kind of ninja training would allow them to manifest their totems so vividly while still on the physical plane?

The light suddenly spurts out in a silent burst. I can't take it any more. I shield my eyes even as I hear the turtles cry out. Judging from the sound, they have just been thrown backwards. A deep darkness replaces the harsh illumination. After a moment, I look around.

The room is lit normally, making it look morbidly dark in contrast to its state just moments ago. The turtles are slowly getting up. Michelangelo is rubbing his shell as he looks around. I realize that the buzzing in my head has finally stopped, and I no longer feel like I'm about to pass out or anything. Other than feeling a bit drained, I'm all right. "So," Mikey says as he rises to his feet. "… did we win?"

"I think so, Mikey," Donatello says, still looking around the room. "But _man_, was that ever amazing. Wait until Sensei hears we called upon our avatars on our own!"

"I'd rather he didn't," Leonardo says as he gets to his feet. "Not unless he has to. That could have been potentially dangerous."

"Waking up can be 'potentially dangerous,'" Raphael scoffs. "We did it. By ourselves. Together. We beat a demon at her own game." Turning to those of us sitting against the wall, he adds, "So I guess there's nothing we _can't_ beat, huh?" I realize that he's looking directly at Bishop.

Bishop stands, regarding the turtles with—can it be? Yes, I think it is—a small bit of respect. "I'm willing to challenge that," he says nonetheless. "Still, I must admit that that was rather impressive." He begins to head for the door, which I now see has been slashed open while Nightcrawler and I were trapped in the crystal. This must be where Wolverine came in through. "I suppose there's some merit in watching you freaks for just a little while longer."

Wolverine jumps up, standing in his way. Though he looks terrible, his claws are extended and he looks determined to keep Bishop from just waltzing out. "Hold it, bub," he snarls. "You told me you were gonna tell me how much you know, and how you came to know it. You ain't skimping out on me after all the crap you just put me through."

Bishop seems to stare at him passively before bluntly stating, "I work for the Earth Protection Force. It's my job to know. And that, Mr. Howlett, is more than concerns you." His quick speed coming into play again, I have just enough of a warning from my spider-sense to tell Wolverine to jump before Bishop shoots his laser.

Wolverine dives out of the way, clearing the exit for Bishop. Without another word, Bishop quickly runs out of the room. I get to my feet and stagger towards the door. He's gone. I don't know how, or where he escaped into, but he's nowhere to be seen.

Turning to Wolverine, I see that he's having a bit of difficulty getting up off the floor. "Hey," I say, offering him a hand, "you okay, buddy?" He swipes my hand away, his claws still extended. I back up, not wanting to get on his bad side when he's in such a touchy mood.

"Let's just get back to Stark Tower, okay?" Wolverine requests.

"Negative." I look back to see that Nightcrawler is slowly approaching us, followed by the turtles. "I do not believe the long trek would exactly be conducive to your healing, despite your miraculous abilities. I recommend we return to the Institute, where you can recover quickly and tell us what has happened before you go on your way." Wolverine looks like he's about to argue, but he never _could_ keep up a fight with Nightcrawler.

As I help the begrudging Wolverine up, I take one last glance back at the lab. Donatello and Raphael seem to be fiddling with something on one of the undamaged control panels off to the side. I ask what they're doing, and they simply respond by heading towards the exit. "C'mon," Raphael says as he grabs my arm and pulls me out. "Fifteen minutes should be enough time for us to carry the wounded out." Hearing a steady beeping coming from behind me, I remember Raphael saying something about wanting to prevent this laboratory from hurting anymore mutants. _Ever_.

Quickening my step, I follow as the turtles help lead me and the two X-Men to safety.


	8. Chapter 8

"You do a shell of job at showing a turtle a good time."

I look up to see Leonardo approaching me, a wry smile on his face. I was sitting on the window sill in the main room of the Institute, looking at the young mutants play in the yard. "Hey," I laugh as he joins me. "I try."

Leonardo looks out thoughtfully. He's a little bruised, but nowhere near as bad as Michelangelo had been. I'm about to ask after his brother when he speaks up. "It's so strange. Those children out there look so normal… but they're mutants. At least, they're a _type_ of mutant. And they need to hide away from the harsh eyes of the world, the same as my brothers and I."

"Yeah," I reply, "but you've got to admit, their hideaway is a lot homier." His smile diminishes a little, but he doesn't take his eyes off the kids. Looking down for a moment, I tell him, "If it makes you feel any better, I hide too. Every day. I hide from my friends, my co-workers… sometimes I even hide from my wife and from myself. But underneath this mask… there's just a normal Joe. A normal Joe who's doing a lousy job of hiding his identity from government agents, apparently."

He looks up at me, noting my bitterness. "Spider-Man, it's Bishop's job to know more than he should. He knows far too much about me and my family, and you would probably become engulfed by paranoia if you knew how much he knows about you and yours." I sarcastically thank him, telling him that that was _just_ what I needed to hear.

"The point is," he goes on, "people know you exist. They know that there's a man who puts on a spider costume and fights crime. And though people might have varying viewpoints on your motives, they can't flat-out deny that you're _good_. You help people. Because of your alliance with the Avengers, Bishop knows that touching you will lead to the fall of everything he's been working for. You're safe."

I look up at him. "Yeah. But what about you? Who knows about your existence, outside of Casey and April? And who's willing to back you guys up?" He looks down for a moment, deep in thought. With a sigh, I tell him, "Look, I don't mean to pressure you. You just gotta admit… Cyclops was right."

When we returned to the Institute and told the X-Men what was going on, Cyclops invited the turtles to stay with them indefinitely. They'd be protected, and they would prove to be of invaluable assistance. The other turtles seemed somewhat swayed, but Leonardo had his doubts. Though I personally think that anyone would be nuts to choose a sewer over a mansion, I recognize that this isn't my problem.

"No," Leonardo finally answers. "He wasn't. Donatello was right in what he said back at the lab. Nightcrawler and Wolverine felt the effects of Juliet's power because they were still mainly _human_. Even though he has demon blood in him, even Nightcrawler is more closely-related to humanity than I am."

"That's not true-"

"Yes it is!" Leonardo blurts out as he stands. "Spider-Man, my brothers and I are different. Unique. Today, that proved to be a blessing. But what about tomorrow? There may be a time when Nightcrawler can walk down the street for what he is… but not us. We're not X-Men, Spider-Man. We're not even men. We're just turtles. Ninja turtles. We belong in the shadows."

I look up at him for a while. I don't get him. When I was given the chance to work with the Avengers, I was ecstatic. Tack my name along with a group of people like me? Have the chance to feel vindicated and appreciated? Be a part of something bigger rather than just be a "lone vigilante?" Heck yes, where do I sign up? But Leo… this isn't the same for him. And I don't get why. I've only been hiding out since high school. He's been on the run his entire life. Shouldn't he want a refuge?

"Leonardo," I tell him levelly, standing, "is that really what you think… or is that just what you've been brought up to believe?" He doesn't answer, but he doesn't look like he's close to giving in, either. "I'm not trying to influence you one way or the other. You guys have done pretty well for a bunch of semi-mythical creatures living in the sewers. But if you keep getting people like Bishop crawling up your shell, don't you think it's time to move to where you'd be safe?"

"Ha. Safe. Right."

Leonardo and I look up as Logan walks towards us. He's pulling a t-shirt over his head, his chest covered in bandages. It wasn't until we had gotten him to the Institute that we realized he had been shot numerous times, sometimes within point-blank range.

From the story he told us, Logan had received a phone call after we had returned from fighting Morlun. It was Bishop. He told Logan that, if he was curious as to how Bishop knew what he knew, then he should follow his directions very carefully. Logan knew that we had to concentrate on getting rid of the Savanti demon, so he neglected to tell us. I had been right; he did use an alibi so we would follow after him. He knew that Donatello placed a tracer on him, and figured that unexpected back-up would be a good idea. Instead of getting any answers, he was shot by about a dozen of Bishop's agents and strapped to a table. They were about to start cutting him open when Bishop went up to deal with us. Logan managed to break free, and his injuries were nothing when compared to Bishop's men. I didn't doubt that.

"Sure, Xavier's is safe," Logan remarks sarcastically. "I mean, heck, we've only had to rebuild it twice since the start of the school year. Or if you'd rather be closer to the city, you can always join the Avengers. We only had to go through _one_ of their headquarters. You can still visit the remains of the old place, too."

He steps in besides me, jokingly hitting me upside the head. "What Slick here doesn't seem to realize is, ain't no place safe for people like us. And I don't just mean _you_, junior," he says, referring to Leonardo. "I mean _all_ of us. You, me, Spidey. Even Playboy Stark. We're different, and people don't ever react too kindly to different.

"The X-Men, we're a team. A _family_, if you wanna use sentimental terms. And we're willin' to take you and your brothers in as distant cousins. But unless your heart's in it, this ain't the place for you. You've got your brothers, your sensei, and your friends. You got Spidey and the Avengers now, too, unofficially. It's up to _you_ to decide how much more you want, and how much more you need." Leonardo looks like he's about to say something, but Logan interrupts. "I ain't the person to tell it to, junior. Go get your brothers. I think I see Mikey joinin' in on a game of dodgeball outside."

I look out the window and see that Logan's right. It looks like Donatello's been roped into joining in, and Raphael seems far too gleeful to be in the opposing team. By the time I turn around, Leonardo's already gone.

"So," I say, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning against the window, "here we are once again, after yet another heart-to-heart talk about teamwork. If I didn't know better, Logan, I'd accuse you of going soft."

"Heh," Logan responds. "More than happy to prove you wrong, Web-head. Just name the time and place." We're quiet for a while, and then he finally tells me, "Go ahead, say it. I can see it in your eyes."

"First of all, say what? Secondly, I'm wearing a mask; _what_ eyes?"

"I ran off," he explains. "I knew you were gonna join up eventually, but I still headed out and put up a roadblock. Did exactly the same thing I told _you_ not to do."

"You know," I say, looking down, "a lecture isn't so much fun when the other person can see it coming a mile away." Looking up at him, I can't help but smirk when I add, "Still, I do have the overwhelming urge to say, 'I told you so,' even though I didn't actually _tell_ you anything."

"Eh," Logan says, staring out the window at the kids, "it's not like I'll learn a lesson from this, anyway. I'm pretty good at that." Changing the subject, he asks, "So, what you gonna do now? Wait for the turtles to see if they're headin' back home?"

"Well, they're definitely going back to the city," I tell him. "I imagine that they've got personal belongings in their lair, and they need to talk the offer over with their sensei, and if they _do_ decide to make the move, they're probably not going to leave without saying goodbye to their friends. I figure I'll hijack one of Cyclops' rides, take 'em back, and let them decide what they want to do. Then MJ and I have a whole lot of housecleaning to do."

"You got any opinion on what they should do?"

"Why should I?" I ask. "Like you said, they're no baby turtles. They can take care of themselves. I don't think that joining up with the X-Men would be a bad idea, but they've already got their own team. The Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or Ninja Mutant Turtles. Or the Mutant Turtle Ninjas. I'm sure they can think up a snazzy name for themselves, left to their own devices."

My voice is quiet, and I can feel Logan staring at me. Feeling another pair of eyes on me, I say, "That's the important thing, though. Leaving them to their own devices. They don't _need_ the X-Men. They don't _need_ the Avengers. They need one another. And wherever they can go that'll allow them to be together, that's where they should be. Because… they're a team. A relatively small one, working underground—pardon the pun—but that doesn't make what they have any less valid than what you and Cyclops have as teammates."

"Heh," Logan mutters, "me and Cyclops. You coulda chose a better pair if you wanted a nice analogy. Maybe more like Raph and Mikey. Ain't that right, kid?" He turns around, looking back. From around the corner, Raphael slowly pokes his head out and looks at us.

"Ninjas," Logan and I both utter mockingly.

"Me and Mikey ain't the best team-up, either," Raphael tells us as he steps into view. "I don't make much of a teammate, to be honest. I know what it takes, but sometimes I manage to take a whole lot more than I give. And I know it, too, but I can't help thinkin'… thinkin' I can do better than what I'm doin'."

Logan walks over to him with a small laugh. Clapping his hand on the turtle's shoulder, he says, "You're preachin' to the choir, kid. Now I know what I woulda looked like if I had been born a turtle." I'm surprised to see that Logan's face is actually relatively friendly as he tells Raphael, "If you're as much like me as I think you are, then it wouldn't hurt ya if you decide to spread yourself out. My primary team is the X-Men, cuz they're who I am. I'm a mutie, no matter what. You, you're a turtle. Your first allegiance is to your family. If you got somewhere else you wanna be, then you go there. Just never forget where ya came from."

Turning away from us, Logan finishes with, "Now if you want me, I'm gonna grab that last beer I saw in the fridge before anyone else does."

* * *

April answers the door shortly after I knock. 

She looks at me, confused. "Can I help you?" With a small smile, I reply that I'm here to pick up my wife. Her expression doesn't change, but she eventually connects the voice with the person. "S… Spider-Man?" Looking me over, she stands aside. "Wh… where's your costume?"

I step inside her apartment, saying, "Stopped home and dumped it in the laundry. According to the boys, it was starting to smell a little ripe. Besides, I figure it might be nice to have some _good_ guys see my true face for a change."

"Peter?" Mary Jane was apparently watching television with April and Casey, and she got up at the sound of my voice. Shocked, she came over to me. "Did something happen? You… why are you…?"

"Relax, MJ," I tell her as I hug her. It feels good to actually be able to hold her freely after everything that's happened. "It's okay. We're with friends. If they can keep the identities of four giant turtles and their rat sensei secret, then I'm pretty sure adding a little spider into the mix won't hurt any."

I hear a door open and see Casey exiting what looks like the bathroom. He eyes me curiously, asking me who I am. I can feel MJ eyeing me worriedly as I reach out for his hand. As he shakes it, I tell him, "Hi. My name's Peter Parker. You know me as Spider-Man."

Casey stops shaking my hand, shocked. "Are you for real?" I nod with a small smile. His eyes dropping down to April, he asks, "Is he for real?" Still wide-eyed, she nods. Looking to MJ now, he asks, "Is this for real?"

"Casey!" April cries out. "Will you just… just… ooh! Quiet, okay?" Turning her attention to me, she says, "Okay, saying that I'm surprised would be something of an understatement, since I was under the impression that walking around without a mask was kind of on the superheroes' list of no-nos. But I guess… okay. Right. So you're Peter Parker. And you're Spider-Man."

"Woo," Casey breathes, "Next you're gonna tell me you're a schoolteacher by day."

"Actually," I start, but get interrupted when MJ elbows me in the ribs.

"I think I've got my brain wrapped around this," April finally says. "Okay. I guess this is an honor. I mean, it _is_. And we know better than to spill, you have our word. Right, Casey?" Casey doesn't answer. My smile gets a little crooked when I realize that he's still gawking at me. "_Right_, Casey?"

"Huh? Oh!" Snapping out of it, he looks down at April, then back up at me. "Right. Secret. Word of honor. Cross my heart 'n hope to croak, or somethin' along those lines." There's a moment of somewhat awkward silence before Casey finally asks, "Sooo… where're the boys?"

Scratching the back of my head, I wonder how I should tell them. As the turtles' friends, they should be happy about this. Still, people tend to have weird reactions about this sort of thing. "Well, about them… it's a funny story." Casey and April eye me guardedly as I ask them if I can sit down.

Sitting on the sofa, I tell them everything.

* * *

"Well, that's the finishing touch." 

I look up at MJ as she puts the vase filled with the pink roses I had given her on top of the new coffee table. "Oh, not there, MJ," I complain as I put my magazine down besides me on the sofa. "It blocks nearly half of the television. Can't you find some other place?"

"Come off it, Tiger," she purrs as she sits next to me and puts her arms around me. "Who says you're going to have the time or the energy to watch TV?" With a smirk, I tell her that that was true just before kissing her.

We're interrupted by a tap at the window. Looking back, I have mixed feelings when I see Michelangelo grinning as he waves at me. As I stand, he moves his hand to mime putting on a mask, telling me that I should change. As I give MJ a helpless look, I see that she's rolling her eyes. "Somehow, this isn't quite what I meant," she mutters.

Not wanting to get into a marital spat over nothing, I go over to the window and open it. "Mikey," I tell him, "don't take this the wrong way, but this had _better_ be important."

"Yeah, sorry about interrupting the smoochfest," he tells me. "Didn't mean it, MJ!" I glance back and see that she's waved it off with a raised eyebrow and a vaguely bemused expression as she turns on the television. Looking back to me, he continues, "Remember when we first met, you said something about knowing a teacher who shot himself up with some serum and ended up turning green with a dose of the occasional crazy?" I reply that I do, and he says, "Well, Leo and Donnie spotted something in the sewers that looks a whole lot like what you were talking about. We were wondering if you wanted to give it a look over."

"Doc Connors? Changed into the Lizard? Again?" I let out a groan as I glance back at MJ, almost as though for permission. She smirks as she tells me not to forget my lab coat; the sewers were chilly this time of year. Turning back to Mike, I tell him to give me two minutes to change into my Spidey suit.

Once I'm suited up, I dash to give MJ one more kiss before putting my mask on. Though it's hard to turn away, I make it out to the ledge, standing besides Mikey and checking to be sure that the streets are empty. "Gotta admit," I tell him as we make our way down to the street, "wasn't sure when I was going to see you guys again. How'd Splinter take the news?"

"Not sure, to be honest," Michelangelo replies. "He kinda just ignores the subject. But I think, as a whole, he's pretty proud. I mean, in the end, we still decided to stick to the shadows." Climbing onto the back of a motorcycle, he grins as he says, "Now, we're just part-time undercover Avengers. Group affiliations, for the win!"

Raphael lifts up the visor of his helmet and gives Mikey a reproachful look. "Yeah," he remarks. "Kinda surprised they let us in, after ya tried to insist that we all get membership cards." He regarded me with his normally-sardonic expression. "How's MJ treatin' ya?"

"She _was_ treating me great," I tell him, "until someone broke the mood. Any advice, Romeo?"

"You're lookin' to lose an arm, wallcrawler," Raphael growls. "And Wolverine?"

"Still looking for answers, meaning he's still looking for Bishop."

"He don't give up," Raphael mutters. Surprising me with a smile, he adds, "Good. Gotta give it up for the guy." Revving up the bike, he says, "Right, now that small talk's over, let's see some web-swingin'." Lowering his visor, he yells, "Try to keep up" as he skids away. With a laugh, I follow after him and Mikey.

Though I'm worried about Doc Connors, I can't help but swing through the air with a smile on my face. MJ's at home, Morlun's gone, and four of my teammates are scarily-strong dragon totems. Not to mention that I've learned that April's homemade chocolate chip cookies are quite possibly the most amazing thing on this side of the planet. MJ's jealous expression as I raved over April's baking is probably the cutest thing I've seen in ages. For the first time in years, I actually _know_ what it's like to be the man behind the mask. And I owe it all to four creatures who never bothered with masks in the first place.

The world's a funny place sometimes.

END.

* * *

**Author's Note**- Thanks to Stealthy Stories' BelloftheSea for posing this story challenge, and to A'tuin and Roo for helping me in the "mystical villains" department. And thanks, of course, to you guys who actually read through all of this. Hope that the majority of it was indeed enjoyable, and I appreciate any and all comments/constructive criticism that you'd be willing to share. :) -Starry 


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